
Book , l\l r\ 






THE GREAT CONCERN. 



THE 



GREAT CONCERN: 



MAN'S RELATION TO GOD 



FUTURE STATE 



NEHEMIAH ADAMS, D. D., 

PASTOR OF THE ESSEX STREET CHURCH, BOSTON. 



&«0ttfc (BHfiott. 



BOSTON: 

GOULD AND LINCOLN 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

NEW YORK: SHELDON AND COMPANY. 
CINCINNATI : GEO. S. BLANCHARD. 

1860. 



3/nu 7 



Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1839, by Gould & Lincolx, in ' 
Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



404426 
'30 



CO 



CONTENTS 



i. 

PAGE 

INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION * . . . 



II. 

JUSTIFICATION, AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. ... 31 

III. 
OUR BIBLE 53 



IV. 

SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT FOR FUTURE, ENDLESS 
PUNISHMENT 115 



V. 

REASONABLENESS OF FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISH- 
MENT 169 



VI. 
GOD IS LOVE 203 



PUBLISHERS' ADVERTISEMENT. 



During the general attention to the subject of 
religion, in 185T-8, a desire was expressed by some 
of the author's parishioners that certain discourses 
which had been of service to inquirers, should be 
printed in the form of Tracts for general distribution. 
They were accordingly issued under the title of 
" Truths for the Times." Of these Tracts more 
than eleven thousand copies have been sold. 

The " Scriptural Argument," was originally an 
article written for a newspaper, by invitation. 

These Tracts, several of which have been, for 
some time, out of print, but are still in demand, 
are here re-printed, in a new shape. 

Some who have not preserved the several numbers 
may be glad to obtain them in this collected and more 
permanent form, for reference, and for distribution. 

Boston, May, 1859. 



. 



I. 
INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 



The difference in the judgments of men with regard to 
Religious Conversion, is owing to the difference in their views 
with respect to the fundamental doctrines of the gospel. They 
who believe that a vicarious sacrifice for sin has been made by 
One who " was in the beginning with God," and " was God," 
and was " made flesh," are led to expect and to find something 
in the relation of men, as sinners, to God, which makes such an 
atonement indispensable to salvation. It confirms their faith 
in the tremendous penalty threatened against sin ; it shows 
them not only the possibility, but the justice, of pardon founded 
on such a sacrifice ; and the promised supernatural change, by 
the Holy Spirit, of all who are thus pardoned, is no more 
than they might expect would follow. 

If the Saviour be, to some, Supreme God, but to others 
only " the young man of Nazareth ; " or if he be to some an 
atoning sacrifice for sin, and to others only an efflorescence of 
human perfectibility ; and again, if he be to us One who was 
"with God,'** as well as "God," and to others merely a super- 
human testimony of divine love, a created being greatly en 
do wed, — our views and feelings on religious subjects will totally 
differ in things esteemed by some to be essential to salvation. 
They who hold that men need only instruction and moral 

(9) 



10 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

culture to secure their eternal welfare ; that Christ was merely 
a messenger, teacher, example, and only thus a Saviour ; that 
sin is its own punishment, in this world ; and that death is in- 
variably followed either by immediate happiness, or, at least, 
by some merciful, disciplinary measures, — must look with sin- 
cere disapprobation upon any thing which is sudden and im- 
petuous in religious experience, and chiefly because of the false 
theology which they think is thereby inculcated. Instead of a 
popular religious excitement being to them like 

" Morn, her steps in the Eastern clime 



Advancing, 
and sowing 



the earth with Orient pearl," 



they say, " An enemy hath done this ; " tares, broadcast, are 
to disappoint and sadden those who, they think, are laboring, 
by the only right processes, in the great field of morals and 
religion. Religious doctrines, therefore, are evidently far 
from being mere speculations ; for surely nothing can be more 
practical than things which have power to heave society, like 
the sea, from land's end to land's end ; and those great religious 
excitements, called " Revivals of Religion," are created only by 
these doctrines. 

It is not the object, now, to discuss these doctrines, but to 
offer an exposition of our views on the great subject of re- 
ligious conversion, as connected with these truths ; and this for 
the information, respectfully and kindly, of those who think 
that evangelical Christians give undue prominence to the 
subject of instantaneous conversion, and that we depreciate 
the value and importance of a continuous, uniform life of 
piety. It is thought that we aim to excite a certain " agony " 
of soul, which we call " experiencing religion," and that we 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 11 

therefore place little or no stress on religion, viewed as the 
great work of life ; or, if we do not thus intentionally repre- 
sent the subject, that at least we encourage a disproportioned 
view of the one act of obtaining forgiveness. 

That such is the general impression with those who do not 
entertain evangelical views, is obvious from their current stric- 
tures, in writing and conversation. A fair specimen of these 
strictures comes to hand, just now, in a communication in one 
of our daily papers ; * and being in no respect different from 
many of the same class, it will serve as an illustration of the 
objections and difficulties in the minds of many with regard to 
the subject. The following are extracts : — 

"THE REVIVAL. 

"To the Editor of the Boston Courier: 

" There is, it seems, enough superstition lei|4n the world to 
call this a special visitation of God ; or there is a hazy philos- 
ophy, that looks upon it as a providential tide in the moral 
world. — A false idea of religion itself is spread among the 
people. Religion — by which I understand a right heart 
towards God and towards men - — is that which we are to at- 
tain by the reasonable and strenuous exertion of all our powers, 
God helping, and the constant use of all the means provided 
in nature, in life, and in all holy ordinances and institutions. 
But instead of a man's feeling that he is put to learn in this 
great school of God's ordaining, — to learn of Christ day by 
day, — to take into his heart and into daily heart-meditation 
the Sermon on the Mount, he is sent away into some little, ex- 
ceptional revival school of man's making ; and there ' he gets ' 
— what ? Why, ' religion.' Which is as great a mistake as 
if a youth, by a week's paroxysm of anxiety about his studies, 
instead of a whole university course, should be said to get 
learning. I do not object to epochs and resolves in the re- 
ligious and moral course ; but I object to this notion of having 

* Boston Courier, April 15, 1858. 



12 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

attained the thing in question, instead of having resolved to 
seek it and finally to attain it. 

" But it may be said that the parallel between learning and 
religion does not hold ; that for learning man has his pristine 
powers, but that in his spiritual nature he is all diseased, sick, 
and paralyzed. Admitting it were so, still I say that the re- 
vival method of cure is not the right one. A judicious 
physician would say to the sick man, as a general prescription, 
< You must take exercise ; you must walk out daily ; you' 
must carefully regulate your diet ; you must deny yourself all 
unhealthy excitement; it will be hard work for you to get 
health, and will take a long time.' ' No,' says the patient, ' I 
had rather go to such a shop, and take a certain nostrum they 
have there ; or a shock from a galvanic battery.' It won't 
cure him." 

The difficulty with this unknown but doubtless sincere wri- 
ter, and with all whom he represents, is this : he makes no ac- 
count of the great change in our relation to God as sinners, 
which, all evangelical Christians believe and teach, is consti- 
tuted by an act of faith in the sacrifice of Christ. Such a 
change we find to be insisted on by Christ and the apostles, as 
the first essential step in the work of salvation. It is attended 
w r ith a conviction of being under condemnation for sin, and 
with sorrow for sin as committed against God ; a sincere 
turning of the soul to God, pleading the work of the Redeemer 
as the ground of forgiveness. Doing so, we are delivered 
from condemnation, and at the same time a preternatural 
change is wrought in us by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
which is called in the Bible being "born again." This we 
profess, through the mercy of God, to have experienced, and 
people who sit under evangelical preaching experience it. 
They who have never known it may not properly adduce 
their negative testimony against our positive knowledge. "We 
have learned from the Bible and experience that there is a 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 13 

certain way of beginning a religious life, and without this 
there is, for us, no true religion. We do not find the Saviour 
declaring, first of all, that " He who lives a good life shall not 
come into condemnation," but, " He that believeth shall not 
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life," 
and that, too, before his good life has tested his sincerity. 
This must precede a good life ; for without this preternatural 
change accompanying this act of believing on Christ, we are 
not capable of spiritual feelings. " He that hath the Son 
hath life ; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not 
life." * 

So that if Christ has made an atonement for sin, and there 
is an act of regenerating grace accompanying falJi in it, no one 
can be a Christian who does not receive Christ in his great 
office. We do well to understand fully what is required of 
us, and what is done for us, in becoming Christians, There is 
nothing so important as this. To be born is an everlasting 
calamity unless we are born again. 

It is with all men, we believe, as it would be if we were 
guilty of a capital crime. We cannot return from the scene 
of our transgression to our dwellings and places of business as 
though nothing had happened, saying, " Good citizenship con- 
sists in doing well all the time, not in being cleared by a 
court of justice." In our case, good citizenship would consist, 
first of all, in being cleared at law. But we say, "-Can being 
cleared at law make us innocent, virtuous, and in every respect 
good?" Being justified by the proper authority, it may be 
replied, is necessary to life itself; this must take place before 
we can speak even about living, much less about living a 
good life. Our life itself is forfeited to human justice. " To 
begin and be good " is not the divinely appointed method of 
being saved, but to be "justified" from our sins by exercising 

* 1 John v. 12. 



14 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

faith in the sufferings and death of Christ as a satisfaction to 
divine justice, and thus to receive, by the grace of God, a 
change of nature. A good life is the necessary consequence 
of being set free from the condemning sentence of the law. 

"When we hear one say, in reply to this, " Religion is the 
work of a life ; it cannot take place at once," we think of 
the captain of a vessel who, in a dark night, is sailing towards 
Cohasset Rocks instead of Boston Harbor, and who should 
say to his mate entreating to let him change the helm, "A 
safe voyage does not consist in one change of the helm ; there 
must be a safe run." But in his case a good voyage will con- 
sist, first of all, in changing the helm. So with us. God 
deals with« us only as sinners till we are justified -by faith in 
Christ. He who " has not believed on the name of the only 
begotten Son of God," in his essential office and work, is, 
according to the Bible, " under condemnation." 

As in a long and complicated difficulty between man and 
man, a definite understanding and reconciliation, a proposal 
and an acceptance of conditions of peace, are indispensable, 
making all subsequent acts between the parties easy and free, 
so this one act of believing on Jesus Christ as an offered sacri- 
fice for sins, and the sense of pardon and acceptance with 
God which comes with it, are the occasion of exceeding peace 
and joy by the very definiteness which they give to our 
religious hope. This is referred to when it is said, " There- 
fore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." On every other plan of reconcili- 
ation with God, we never know when we have done enough. 
But we speak the experience of multitudes without number 
when we say, that there is wonderful power in the atonement 
by Christ to satisfy the conscience at once. Hence, the sud- 
den and great joy which accompanies conversion, when the 
subject of it is fully aware that he has exercised saving faith. 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 15 

We experience the great practical value of this way of 
pardon by an act of faith in the Redeemer, at dying beds. 
A man arrested by sudden sickness, or by an accident, has but 
a few uncertain hours to live ; yet, though he has always for- 
gotten his God and Saviour, we are instructed, by our views 
of the gospel, to offer pardon to him, upon condition of his 
accepting the sacrifice of the Son of God as the propitiation 
for his sins. Believing in instantaneous regeneration, and in 
pardon, as a consequence of the simple act of faith in Christ, 
we approach a dying sinner with confidence. Salvation will 
ensue upon his first act of faith in Christ, as really as though 
a life of piety could succeed. We are not compelled to feel 
that by his neglect he has lost his chance of salvation ; but the 
mercy which provided pardon for us without adequate merit 
on our part, abounds " much more " " where sin has abound- 
ed." Some say this is too easy a way of being saved, and 
thus our system appears too merciful. Others say it must 
encourage men to put off repentance in hope of that last ex 
treme chance of being saved. No doubt many do thus tres- 
pass upon the long suffering of God, and some of them find, 
alas ! that it is to their destruction. But as to the dying thief, 
so to others, Christ crucified affords mercy through faith, 
without works, in a dying hour. The selfsame way of justi- 
fication and salvation by faith in Christ, without works, we 
propose to the sinner on the verge of time, and to the youth 
with the prospect of long life. To the youth we say, that to 
him who trusts in Christ, God imputes righteousness freely 
without works. And to the dying man who has no works, 
and will never have any, to offer, we preach the same glorious 
gospel of the blessed God. 

We must be careful not tc lose the opportunity of salv&tion 
by mistaking the only true beginning of it, and substituting the 
whole future method of a good life for the entrance itself, 



16 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

which we must pass before we can be, in the scriptural sense, 
Christians. Christ says, "Enter ye in at the strait gate." 
Entering a gate is not " the work of a life." The road which 
follows may be long, but much time is not spent in passing a 
turnpike gate. Sometimes, when searching for a strange 
place, we suddenly, to our surprise, find ourselves there. We 
took the right turn v ithout being aware of it ; and thus many, 
in their anxiety anl confused feelings, really exercise true 
submission, and find themselves at peace with God, without 
being aware, at the time, that they had done so great an act 
as that of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Every thing, therefore, depends on the way in which we 
propose to begin the Christian life. There is no such thing 
as entering the way to heaven wrong, and coming out right, 
for God has only one method of receiving us. When we 
insist on this we appear to some illiberal. But we did not 
invent the way of salvation. We did not fix its terms. We 
speak only that which we find revealed, and which we have, 
by our experience, found to be true. For we discovered that, 
before we could proceed in religion, the atonement of Christ 
must take effect " for the remission of sins that are past, 
through the forbearance of God." We needed, first of all, for- 
giveness and reconciliation. This we sought and found by 
faith in the atoning work of Christ. After that, a life of virtue 
and piety, of love and obedience, of growth in grace and in 
the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, was 
seen to be required, and we saw it to be provided for, through 
the renewing and sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit, 
who has an equal part with the Redeemer in the work of 
saving man. 

We now proceed to the second part of our subject. In- 
dispensable as we find the act of justification to be, and stren- 



I*ST±NTANE#US CINTERSItN. 17 

uously as we insist that men must experience it, and, with it, 
at one and the same time, regeneration, we also insist that this 
is only preparatory to something else. True, the dying man 
who believes is saved by his faith, without its accompanying 
evidence and fruit of good works; and he experiences the 
renewing of his nature, for Christ's sake, in connection with 
his faith. But, to borrow the inspired expression, "they 
which live " are to evince their faith by certain consequences 
flowing from it, without which their faith is vain. The 
apostle says to those " who have obtained like precious faith 
with us through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our 
Lord," " And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your 
faith virtue." For they have only begun to experience the 
great purpose for which they were converted. 

To be a Christian — blessed be God — is not merely to obtain 
a verdict of acquittal. It was not for this alone than the plan 
of human redemption began " before the wcrld was." The 
work of atonement, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, have 
not achieved their great design when the sinner is simply dis- 
charged from the punishment which he has merited. " He 
shall save his. people from their sins." " God, having raised 
up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, by turning every one 
of you away from his iniquities." 

It is not to be concealed, that some are entirely satisfied 
with having a hope that they are forgiven. 

If we should see a child w r ho had done wrong, and had been 
weeping, and who had obtained forgiveness for some great 
sin, exulting with his playmates, and saying, '• I am not to be 
punished," and that should appear to be Lis sole inflection 
with regard to the transactions between himself and his father, 
we should say, " You certainly have light views of your mis- 
conduct, and we more than doubt the sincerity of your pro- 
fessed repentance." There is no religion u ithout repentance 
2 * 



18 I N^ T A N T*A N,E U S ^CONVERSION. 

of sin. He who, in any way or for any reason, has merely 
obtained a hope that he shall not be punished, and has not 
been humbled by the thought of his sinfulness, proceeding 
from an evil nature, and who does not feel that for the iniquity 
of his heart and life he deserves nothing but displeasure from 
God, and that all his future obedience cannot make recom- 
pense for his sins, nor abate his obligations for the infinite 
sacrifice which his sins have cost, and, besides, that he is con- 
tinually doing and feeling that which, to-day, needs the blood 
of atonement, as really as when he was first pardoned, has 
never had proper views of himself, and of forgiveness, and of 
Christ's atoning and redeeming work. Such a man will be 
likely, when the novelty of his experience has passed away, to 
sin again without much compunction. He will have low 
views of the divine requirements and of holiness. It will be 
with him as with those who draw money in a lottery, and find 
it easy to part with that which came at no expense. 

But when we feel that the pardon of sin was procured at 
infinite cost, and the evil of sinning against God — not mere- 
ly against our own interests, but against God — makes a 
suitable impression, we dread the thought of repeating those 
things of which we have repented ; we fear, most of all, the 
thought of sinning against Him who was wounded for our 
transgressions. 

The repentance which is actuated by sorrow, awakened by 
considerations of the character of God and our obligations to 
him, is repentance unto life not to be repented of. Inasmuch 
as doing wrong is our great sorrow, it is not our greatest joy 
that we are forgiven, but that God will help us to love holiness 
and to seek for it ; our great desire is, to be conformed to the 
will of God. His law is still our standard ; our aim is perfect 
conformity to his will and image. Thus, being sincerely pen- 
itents the blood of Christ has cleansed us from the legal conse- 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 19 

* 
quences of sin, and it will progressively cleanse us ; that is, 
lead us to purify ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and 
spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 

We must " add to our faith virtue." In its highest, largest 
sense, we must be virtuous. We must let religion, like a 
healthful wind, sweep through all parts of the character, as 
such a wind is welcomed into the opened apartments of a 
dwelling where sickness has long infested and infected every 
thing. We must be improved every way, in our private rela- 
tions, in our business, in our habits, in our disposition, in our 
whole character. The}' "that believe in God" must "be 
careful to maintain good works." To profess that religion has 
the ascendency in us, and yet to be deficient in good morals, 
is so palpable an absurdity that it is every where viewed 
with disgust. Large portions of the doctrinal Epistles are oc- 
cupied with exhortations to strict morality. A good man in 
one of our churches uniformly inquired of candidates for ad- 
mission to the church, when under examination, whether they 
loved to read the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm ; because 
he knew that in that psalm we have constant protestations of 
desires for holiness, and of love for the commandments of God, 
as well as for his promises. " I will never forget thy precepts, 
for with them hast thou quickened me." " My hands also will 
I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved." 

When we are told to add virtue to faith, some prefer to 
give the more specific, and, as they say, the more strictly cor- 
rect interpretation to virtue, as meaning fortitude, — the origi- 
nal word for virtue being derived from the name of Mars. 
They would therefore regard the apostle as exhorting us, hav- 
ing believed on Christ and professed our new relation to him, 
to be courageous and firm in our Christian profession ; never 
to be ashamed of our principles nor of our Master ; never tc 
be daunted by opposition, or by ill success, nor to cower in 



20 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

• * 

the presence of unbelievers ; but when Christ is reproached 
through the truths which he has enforced upon us, to say, " Let 
us go forth, therefore, unto him boldly without the camp, bear- 
ing Lis reproach." Surely this is properly included in the 
term virtue, while the real signification of the term, here, 
seems to require a more extended definition. 

Esligion is rational ; add, therefore, to " virtue, knowledge." 
" God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." The objects 
of faith are above reason, and incomprehensible ; yet there is 
nothing in one of them which does violence to the human rea- 
son ; and after the mind has consented to the supremacy of 
revelation, its preternatural truths are perfectly harmonious 
with all our feelings ; in proof of which, witness the heartfelt 
satisfaction and joy imparted by the firm belief of the inscru- 
table things of revelation. As vegetation, which is a great mys- 
tery, pours out fruits and flowers upon the earth, so the mysteries 
of religion are a soil loaded with the richest products. Igno- 
rance is not the mother of devotion. We must be something 
more than fervent and zealous. Emotion which is not founded in 
truth soon wearies itself and others. We must be instructed. 
Some young converts, overjoyed by their discovery of the 
way to be saved, are tempted to think that they know every 
thing in religion which is to be known. They will do well to 
reflect how ignorant they have been all their lifetime ; " fool- 
ish, disobedient, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living 
in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." And 
now that " the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards " 
them has appeared, while it should make them confident and 
strong in his love and power, it should also make them exceed- 
ingly diffident and circumspect, esteeming others better than 
themselves, " submitting themselves unto the elder," seeking 
to be instructed by the experience of those of whom they can 
say, as the apostle Paul, with beautiful modesty, says of some, 
" who also were in Christ before me." 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 21 

It is a hopeful sign when a young Christian begins imme- 
diately to study the Bible, inquiring as to the best ways of 
reading it for devotional purposes, and for instruction, seeking 
the best helps in doing so, and manifesting a preference for the 
word of God above all the uninspired writings even of the 
best of men. There is no better answer to be given, gener- 
ally, when young Christians ask us, " What books shall I read ? " 
than to say, " The Bible." The most intelligent believers and 
the most useful Christians are they who are thoroughly im- 
bued with the spirit and language of the sacred Scriptures. 
That is a singular commendation, with the reason for it an- 
nexed, which is bestowed on the early Berean converts, as 
being more " noble " than they of Thessalonica, because they 
" searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." 

Self-control must now be strengthened. " Add to knowl- 
edge, temperance." Religion must master our appetites and 
passions, through the power of love to God united with the 
implanted principle of aversion to sin, and love of holiness, 
which we receive at regeneration. Every thing is defective in 
our experience if obedience be not a fruit of» it. " If a man 
love me, he will keep my words." " Herein is love, that we 
keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleas- 
ing in his sight." Religion is conformity to God, not a mere 
hope of being forgiven, not simply a persuasion of having 
been regenerated. The great object of our redemption is to 
restore in us the image of God. We are to have the same 
standard of obedience, — that is, the perfect law of God, — now 
that we are redeemed from the curse of the law, as we should 
have were our salvation to depend upon our obedience. Nor 
is our obligation to keep it lessened by our inability ; for the 
law of God is not graduated upon a moving scale, suiting itself 
to the different moral capacities of the different subjects of the 
divine government. The substance of the law is, "Be ye 



22 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is j erfect." 
Failing of this, we cannot reduce the requirements of the law 
to our ability ; nor, on the other hand, does sin lose any thing 
of its guilt, nor human imperfection obtain acceptance at a 
more favorable rate. But ""Christ is the end of the law for 
righteousness." God cannot cease to demand perfection of us. 
And if this be unattainable by reason of our apostasy, is the 
obligation thereby impaired? By no means. Provision for 
our salvation is made, in the atonement, of another righteous- 
ness, " even the righteousness which is of God through faith ; " 
and, at the same time, we are to aim constantly at perfect con- 
formity to God. Some murmur at this, as though it were a 
hard saying. On the contrary, it is a cause for gratitude 
that God does still propose to us the perfect standard of his 
own infinitely blessed nature, as the mark at which we are to 
aim. He has provided against the certain failure of our best 
endeavors, by the righteousness of Christ, while he bids us 
keep our eye fixed on himself as the standard of duty and 
effort. It is to be our lifelong effort to be increasingly good. 
" For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be 
conformed to the image of his Son," not merely to be saved 
from punishment. It was to maintain the cause of holiness in 
the universe that our redemption took place. Our forgive- 
ness, regeneration, and final salvation have this for their chief 
end, to reestablish the perfect authority of God over us, and, 
perhaps, to strengthen that authority in other subjects of the 
divine government. Hence we give evidence that religion 
has obtained dominion over us, that we possess religion, only 
as it makes us more and more like Christ. If we give the 
reins to our appetites and passions, if we are seen hankering 
after worldly pleasure, if we do not govern our tongues, if our 
evil tempers and dispositions are not modified, if we are capa- 
ble of dishonesty or falsehood, a hope of having been con 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 23 

verted, and the most splendid religious experience, so called, 
will not save us from the mortification and dismay which 
those words of Christ will certainly inflict upon us — "I never 
knew you." 

There is a higher exercise of religious principle even than 
in self-control as applied to the government of our passions. 
" Patience " is a more perfect proof that we are bearing 
Christ's yoke. In the trials of our several conditions, we 
" have need of patience, that after we have done the will of 
God, we should inherit the promises." After self-denying, 
active service, after the most persevering watchfulness against 
temptation, and ' keeping under the body and bringing it in 
subjection,' some protracted sorrow or trial, ill* health, misfor- 
tune, disappointment, some bitter loss, will seem to shut down, 
like a cloud with no sunlight beneath it, upon our prospect ; 
and then we are called to an exercise of confidence in God, 
and of submission to him, such as no previous trials occa- 
sioned. Great stress is laid in the Bible on " enduring." To 
bear secret, heavy trials, "with all long suffering and 
joyfulness," is a preeminent proof that God is our portion, 
and that his will is our delight. This is pure religion and 
undefiled. 

All this creates in ua that habitual holy living which is 
called " godliness ; " the all-pervading influence of godly fear 
and childlike love becoming an atmosphere in which we ijave 
our being. But religion is not merely contemplative. It 
does not make us satisfied with meditations upon divine things. 
It is a beautiful illustration of the entirely practical nature of 
true religion, that social duties are presented as a necessary 
attendant of godliness. " And this commandment have we 
from him, that he that loveth God love his brother also." 

Hence we are told that we must add to godliness " brotherly 



24 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

kindness." That great proficient in the school of Christ, the 
apostle John, occupies much of one Epistle in insisting upon 
love to others as a necessary proof and fruit of loving God. 
There is a difference between love and kindness. Less pas- 
sionate, more general in its extent, shedding practical benefits 
around it by words, and acts, and looks, kindness in the dis- 
position, manners, and conduct is a source of inestimable hap- 
piness. It cannot be affected. It is felt most sensitively. It 
goes where love may not yet go. It is a means of influence 
which is not surpassed. It can be cultivated. The manners 
can be amended so as to comport with it. Quickness at dis- 
cerning, and promptness in relieving, an embarrassment, or an 
inconvenience, or a positive want, is capable of being in- 
creased, and should be studied. 

But as to that which the Bible represents as the crown of 
human excellence, " charity," so different from every other 
moral quality, no uninspired description, no picture of it, is 
more impressive, and more readily felt and understood, than 
w r hen we see it in full exercise, as we almost always do, in 
dying Christians. When we are dying we love every body. 
All our animosities subside. We take kind and favorable 
views of others, so far as justice allows. We embrace all in 
our affectionate desires and good wishes. When the cele- 
brated John Eliot, of Roxbury, was near to death, at the 
age of eighty-six, some one asked him how he did. " Alas ! " 
said he, " my understanding, my memory, my tongue fail me. 
Every thing fails me except my charity. I think that rather 
grows than decreases." Dr. Increase Mather, then in London, 
sent a copy of his son's (Cotton Mather's) Life of Eliot to 
Richard Baxter, who was near his end, and was suffering 
with a peculiarly painful illness. Mr. Baxter roused himself, 
and wrote as follows to Dr. Mather : — 

" Dear Brother : I thought I had been near dying at twelve 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 25 

o'clock, in bed, but your book revived me. I lay reading it 
until betAveon one and two. I am now dying, I hope, as Mr. 
Eliot died. It pleased me to read from him my case : \My 
understanding faileth, my memory faileth, my tongue faileih, 
(and my hand and pen faileth,) but my charity faileth not.'] 
That word much comforted me." It is well to cultivate that 
which, on the verge of time, we perceive to be the spirit of the 
heavenly world. It was said of Mr. Eliot, towards the close 
of life, " He scented more of the spicy country at which he 
was ready to put ashore." 

It is noticeable that two of the apostles use nearly similar 
expressions with regard to the preeminence of this Christian 
quality. Paul says, " And above all these things, put on 
charity, which is the bond of perfectness." 1 Peter says, 
'' And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves ; 
for charity shall cover the multitude of sins." 2 

After Peter had finished the enumeration of the things 
which he says a Christian must add to his "faith," he says, 
" For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you 
that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things 
is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he 
is purged from his old sins." 3 He means to say that one 
who rests in merely having, as he supposes, believed on 
Christ, and does not proceed to the cultivation of a Christian 
character, takes an extremely limited view of things, has no 
proper conception of his duty, and brings discredit on his repu- 
tation as a convert. Why did he repent ? Did he truly 
repent ? If he did, it was not merely to obtain pardon ; he 
became averse to sin ; and now, his life will be a constant 

1 Col. iii. 14. 2 i p eL iv . 8 . 3 2 Pet. i. 8, 9. 

3 



26 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

struggle against it ; — as the apostle intimates, when he enjoins 
upon us to " take the whole armor of God," and when we 
have " done all, to stand," — that is, waiting and watching, in 
armor, for those assaults which will surely come. He will no 
more be satisfied with having been converted, than a man upon 
a journey is satisfied with merely changing his direction, at 
finding himself upon the wrong road. 

But if we proceed as we began, being still penitent for sin, 
looking for pardon through Christ, depending constantly not on 
works, nor discouraged at deficiencies and remaining evil with- 
in us, but trusting to the righteousness of Christ for justifica- 
tion, and at the same time, while delivered from the condemn- 
ing sentence of the law, making that law, in all its spiritual 
application, our rule of life, and so endeavoring to improve in 
all goodness, — what will follow ? " If ye do these things ye 
shall never fall ; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto 
you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ." No " strait gate " will open to re- 
ceive us ; but in proportion to our proficiency in goodness will 
be our welcome and our crown. For, while our works are not 
the ground of our justification, they are the ground of our 
reward. One passage, occurring where we should not look for 
it, expresses in few words the great truth, that sinners justified 
and saved by mere mercy, are, nevertheless, rewarded in pro- 
portion to their goodness : " Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth 
mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his 
works." 1 Justice would seem to some more appropriately to 
be illustrated by such reward ; but to those who have forfeited 
every thing by sin, and whose prayers and praises, even, are 
accepted only through a propitiation for sin, it surely is 
" mercy " to afford them the opportunity of increasing in good- 
ness, with its consequences. 

i Ps. bdi. 12. 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 27 

These things, therefore, we teach and exhort, insisting upon 
the one great act of believing on Christ as an atoning sacri- 
fice, by which we obtain peace with God, and receive a pre- 
ternatural change, which makes spiritual things perceptible 
and congenial ; and then we declare, that this is but the en- 
trance, the enrolment, the initiation ; and that the sincerity of 
this great experience is to be shown by increasing conformity 
to the will of God. Neither of these two parts of Christian 
experience can exist without the other. 

For a man may be the most perfect of moralists, and if 
this be all he will yet fail to be saved ; because God has not 
appointed morality to be the ground of justification. A man 
cannot " have peace with God " till he has had such a sense 
of sin as to see and feel his need of atoning blood. His 
morals may be commended by men ; but at heart he has 
had no proper view of sin, nor of his relation to God as a 
subject of his government. There is no true Christian mo- 
rality without such a view of sin as God takes of it ; and his 
view of sin is expressed in the great propitiation for sin — in 
his having " made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that 
we might be made the righteousness of God in him." 

But having exercised faith in this propitiation, and having 
experienced a change, which is not merely that of the govern- 
ing purpose, but a work of the Holy Spirit, and which consti- 
tutes as real a bias towards good, though constantly affected 
by our evil nature, as the natural state of the soul is biased 
towards evil, we strenuously insist that the individual must 
prove this to have taken place in him, by a life of piety and 
morality. 

It will not be wondered at, therefore, that we make so much 
of conversion. We do not require a man to tell us the precise 
time when this change took place. Richard Baxter says that 
he was once in company with forty ministers who related their 



28 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

religious experience, and not one of them, so it happened, 
could specify the time when he was conscious of first believing 
on Christ. This, indeed, was a rare occurrence ; but the 
cases are not only frequent, — they are such as to inspire 
the utmost confidence in the reality of a divine work upon 
the heart, in which the subjects of it cannot point to the time 
when it took place. As there is a moment when the tide 
ceases to ebb and begins to flow, there is a moment when the 
change in our religious feelings and character takes place. 
There are signs, apart from dates and strict historical knowl- 
edge, which evince that saving faith has been exercised, that 
a preternatural change has been experienced ; and finding 
these signs, we are " confident of this very thing, that he 
which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until 
the day of Jesus Christ." We then look for a life of increas- 
ing conformity to God. If we find, however, that an indi- 
vidual has never known what it is to trust in the atoning 
death of the Redeemer, we are sure that he has never ex- 
perienced the change of nature which is essential to the new 
spiritual life ; because the work of Christ, and the work of the 
Holy Spirit in the heart, are inseparable. 

There is a way of speaking about the dangers of self-decep- 
tion, and of warning and cautioning people not to be super- 
ficial, which discourages their efforts to do the first essential 
things in becoming Christians. Neither Christ nor his apostles 
dwell on the infinite importance of sincerity and perseverance 
in this way. Let the first things be rightly done, and we 
may be sure that every tiling else will follow in its time and 
place. For while we do not cease to be free agents after we 
are converted, but warnings, threatening?, and promises are 
still addressed to us, showing that the government of God over 
us is still a government of motives, it is nevertheless true that 
God has a part to perform in the work of our perseverance 



INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 29 

and sanctiiication. The new nature is indestructible. It does 
not consist merely in a series of volitions, which may cease, 
and leave us as we were before; but whoever believes in 
Christ is born again. He will persevere in holiness and be 
saved. 

Towards midnight, perhaps, we hear some one approach 
our dwelling, ascend to the lantern, and as quickly descend, 
leaving a clear, steady light in the lantern, and, it may 
be, in the midst of wind and rain. We may have been 
struck with the quickness with which the flame was lighted. 
Though kindled in an instant, it would burn, day and night, 
for years ; for there is somewhere an unfailing supply which 
feeds it. Great preparations had been made for that flame, 
though kindled by a single touch. 

So it is with the life of God in the soul. From the founda- 
tion of the world that soul was chosen ; provision was made for 
its redemption and salvation ; the great plan of mercy in its 
behalf was arranged in the councils of eternity ; instruction, 
discipline, conviction, all have dpne their useful, necessary 
work ; but all is in vain unless the hand of the Spirit kindle 
it into a flame. As the material prepared for the light in the 
lantern might flow into the air, to the end of time, to no good 
purpose, if it be not lighted, so all our knowledge of God, and 
of moral and religious subjects, our natural and acquired 
endowments, cannot of themselves afford us the light of life. 
They cannot light themselves. That light is communicated 
in a moment, and supernaturally. Its consequences are to be 
eternal, but it is communicated at once. 

This is supernatural conversion. Every son and daughter 
of Adam needs it. Christ told Nicodemus that without it 
no man can see the kingdom of God. It requires the exer- 
cise of our powers and faculties, our choice, our efforts, as 
really as though there were not divine agency in it. At the 
3* 



30 INSTANTANEOUS CONVERSION. 

same time there is that connected with it — blessed be God ! 
— which is " not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, 
but of God." We are voluntary and active in this change. 
We repent, we accept Christ, unconscious of divine aid, yet 
feeling our entire dependence upon it, and when we comply 
with the requirements of the gospel in the exercise of our 
natural powers, it is because " God shines into our hearts, to 
give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as it 
is in the face of Jesus Christ." And thus, while it is all of 
grace, God has so arranged the method by which it is obtained 
that every one may, by the use of the appointed means, 
more surely be converted, even, than he can produce light at 
his lamp by the use of the ordinary means. Not only so, 
God commands it. He makes it the duty of every one to 
experience it without delay. " Repent ye, therefore, and 

BE CONVERTED, THAT YOUR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED OUT, 
WHEN THE TIMES OF REFRESHING SHALL COME FROM THE 
PRESENCE OF THE LORD." 



II. 

JUSTIFICATION 
AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 



When we read, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord 
will not impute sin," we see the dawn of the great idea con- 
tained in that which is called justification by faith in Christ. 
Blessed, indeed, must he be to whom God will not impute sin ; 
for if this be secured, all is well. If God does not impute sin, it 
must be for reasons and upon principles which protect and honor 
his own character, while the ultimate holiness of those who 
are pardoned will also be secured. But if there be any thing 
which we should beforehand pronounce impossible, it would be 
that sin should not be imputed, or that its punishment should 
be remitted. With a past life of transgression, with a sinful 
nature, remaining so till death, it would seem impossible that 
we could ever, in this world, be in such a relation to God 
that sin should not be imputed to us. All analogies are 
against it. Pardon in the state and in the family is followed 
by conformity to law ; but if a citizen or a child should, after 
being once forgiven, be as blame-worthy as every sinner must 
ever be in this world, when judged by the perfect law of God, 
there would be no such thing as not imputing sin. And 

yet this is the corner-stone of all evangelical truth, " to wit, 

(31) 



32 JUSTIFICATION 

that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them." Jesus Christ, by his suf- 
ferings and death, has done that which is imputed to every one 
who believes in him ; it takes the place of the sinner's personal 
righteousness ; so that the sinner, by exercising faith in Christ, 
is thereby reckoned as innocent, and is treated accordingly. 
" Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one 
that belie veth ; " that is, the law which requires obedience, and 
threatens death for disobedience, accomplishes its end in every 
one who believes in, and pleads, the sufferings and death of 
Christ as the ground of pardon. 

If one should take a pen, to express in the clearest and 
strongest terms the idea of being pardoned and saved in con- 
sequence of sufferings and death endured by one for another, 
he could not, after the greatest deliberation, write any thing 
more clear or strong than the language of the Bible is, when 
speaking of salvation by the sufferings and death of Christ in 
our stead. 

" He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised 
for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon 
him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep 
have gone astray, — and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity 
of us all." "After threescore and two weeks shall Messiah 
be cut off, but not for himself." " He bare the sins of many." 
*' Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree." 
" Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through 
faith in his blood." " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh 
away the sin of the world." " L^nto him that loved us, and 
washed us from our sins in his own blood." " Thou wast 
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation." 

The doctrine of salvation, as evangelical Christians hold it, 
is, that in the Godhead there is a plural mode of existence ; 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 66 

that the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost are one only 
living and true God ; that " the Word became flesh," was 
" made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, — 
that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every 
man ; " that his whole work of obedience, suffering, and dying 
constitutes, by divine appointment, an equivalent for the 
merited punishment of sin, and it is made the ground on which 
sin can be forgiven consistently with justice. The supreme 
Deity of Christ is essential to an atonement. If Christ be not 
divine, his work is merely a pathetic exhibition of interest in 
human welfare, not a vicarious sacrifice. To reverse the 
proposition, if " the Word was God," the sufferings and death 
of Christ could not have been a mere expression of sympathy ; 
but all the strong expressions relating to redemption by his 
blood, require a vicarious sacrifice to warrant the amazing 
interposition of God made flesh, and making " intercession for 
the transgressors." 

Some reply to all this by saying that it is " figurative," 
" metaphorical," " Oriental exaggeration ; " that the thing itself 
is so " improbable," and " impossible," that the interpretation of 
the words, however explicit, must be controlled by making a 
large allowance for the boldness of the figures. 

If this be so, we may, perhaps, agree with those who also 
tell us, that God cannot make a revelation to the whole world 
by human language. For, employing, as he must, the minds 
and speech of men in certain countries, and at certain times, 
such is the diversity in modes of thought and expression, that 
men of no other times and countries can arrive at any certain 
knowledge of what is intended in the revelation. 

But we call in question the principles upon which they 
interpret the language of the Bible. They apply rules to it 
which they would not, for the sake of their reputation as 
scholars and men of good understanding, apply to any other 



34 JUSTIFICATION 

writings. When a careless or a passionate man uses figurative 
language, we subtract something from it in determining the 
truth. When a serious and honest speaker or writer labors 
to convey an idea, or to make an impression, with figurative 
language, we know that it is because literal speech fails to 
express his conceptions, and we, therefore, rather add some- 
thing to the amount of meaning in his symbols than detract 
from it. Only in things of infinite moment, in things which 
relate to them as sinners, and to their peril and their redemp- 
tion, do men view language transcendentally, and thus pervert 
its meaning. — Let us take a view of the Brazen Serpent cor- 
responding to that which is thus taken of salvation by the suf- 
ferings and death of Christ. 

A man lies on his bed in the tent, suffering from a fiery 
serpent's bite. Friends tell him that God has commanded 
Moses to make a serpent of brass and set it upon a pole, 
and it shall come to pass that whoever is bitten, if he will look 
upon the brazen serpent, he shall live. They prepare to 
remove the bed to the tent door, that the dying man may cast 
his eye to the appointed symbol and be saved. 

One of the friends, however, interposes. He has not seen 
the brazen serpent. Indeed, he would not lift his eye to be 
more satisfied than he is that such a way of being cured is 
preposterous. There is no possible connection, he says, be- 
tween a brazen serpent and the bite of a flying serpent ; 
between looking at something upon a pole and the cure of an 
envenomed wound. Can the sight of brass cool the fevered 
blood ? The very look at the image of a serpent would 
awaken fresh pain. No judicious Levite would try to raise 
the apparition of a monster for the cure of one who had been 
wounded by that monster. The whole appointment, there- 
fore, is " figurative," " metaphorical ; " there is no pole, no 
brazen serpent, yonder ; but the meaning of God's command 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 35 

to Moses is this : The Infinite Father wishes to have his 
suffering children meditate upon the infliction which he has 
felt compelled to send upon them, by means of venomous 
serpents, for their salutary chastisement. They must get a 
clear, vivid sense of their transgression ; their conceptions of 
their sin must be as real and deep as the sight of a shining 
brass image of a flying serpent would be impressive. By the 
" pole," it is intimated that we must keep the subject of our 
sin "lifted up" before our minds, until we are thoroughly 
penitent. 

And now, while the cured and grateful patients in the 
encampment come, one after another, to the tent door, beckon 
to this friend of the dying man, and beseech him just to turn 
the bed so that he may look and be saved, the transcen- 
dentalist replies that, if Moses himself should tell him to do 
so, he has too much confidence in the wisdom and goodness 
of the Infinite Father to believe that he would appoint such 
a means of cure. "Nehushtan" 1 he would call it, as Heze- 
ki.ih did when it became an object of idolatry. 

But let us hear the Son of God : " And as Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be 
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that 
he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in 
him should not perish, but have everlasting life." If we may 
have the same confidence in language that relates to the 
concerns of our souls for eternity, which we do not hesitate to 
repose in the apparently sincere and honest words of a phy- 
sician, or in the instructions received from our superiors in 
business or in command, we cannot be at a loss in what way to 
understand these words- of the Saviour. The look which the 
wounded Israelites gave at the appointed sign was an act of 

1 Or, A piece of brass. 1 Kings xviii. 4. 



36 JUSTIFICATION 

faith. It was not for them to know why that method a. cure, 
rather than any other, was appointed ; with implicit faith they 
cast their eye upon it, and were thereby healed. It is easy 
to see that the brazen serpent, reminding them of their pun- 
ishment, would test their willingness to receive a cure from 
the hands of Him whom they had offended ; and the more 
obviously gratuitous the cure was made to appear by the 
appointment of a sign which had no necessary connection 
with medicine, so much the more would it require humility 
and submission, as well as faith, to comply with this appointed 
method of being healed. 

" Even so," the Saviour says, " must the Son of man be 
lifted up." But, as we see him on the cross, men are divided 
in their interpretations of the design in that crucifixion. 
Some impute a wholly metaphorical meaning to the act ; they 
make it an allegory. Others receive it as literally as the 
plain words of Christ, literally understood, oblige them, by the 
ordinary rules of language, to receive it. Christ was " lifted 
up " on a cross. An act of faith in him is as necessary 
(and it is as sure) to save the soul, as the look at the brazen 
serpent was to cure the victims of the fiery serpents. We 
may turn it all into poetry and myth ; we may allege our 
preconceived opinions as to our moral necessities against such 
a way of being saved, and argue, from our persuasion con- 
cerning the character and government of God, that the literal 
sufferings and death of Christ cannot be an atonement for sin ; 
but, while we do this, publicans and harlots go into the king- 
dom of God before us ; absurd as it seems to us, and while 
we try to represent it as absurd, many around us, who expe- 
rience that great religious transformation which is so universal 
in its features, viz., religious conversion, turn from every form 
of unbelief, and from the ministry of our friends who deny it, 
and, with intelligent, strong faith, accept the literal sufferings 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 37 

and death of the Redeemer as the ground of their justification 
and salvation. 

When we hear Paul say, " But we preach Christ cruci- 
fied," we do not wonder to hear him add, " to the Jews a 
stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness." True, it is 
strange that with Moses and the prophets in their hands, and 
the smoke of their altars going up in sight of Calvary, the 
Jews should not have recognized in Christ the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world ; or that the 
Greeks should not have been convinced, by such teachings 
and miracles as those of Christ, that he was that Lamb of 
God. But we know that when our sinful will and pride 
are assailed, belief is by no means according to evidence. 
Even after they had seen Jesus open the eyes of the blind, 
' then came the Jews to him, and said, How long dost thou 
make us to doubt ? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.' 
To have accepted the man of Calvary as an atoning sacrifice 
for sin, would have required a state of heart Avhich the pen- 
itent thief and others like him only possessed. There are 
three who are dying on three crosses, " on either side one, 
and Jesus in the midst." He "in the midst" is dying to 
save our souls. God is setting him forth " to be a propi- 
tiation through faith in his blood ; to declare his righteousness 
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbear- 
ance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, 
that he might be just, and the justifier of him that belie veth 
in Jesus." They tell us that " he is wounded for our trans- 
gressions, he is bruised for our iniquity; the chastisement 
of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are 
healed." "I saw those stripes," says one of the bystanders, 
a Pharisee ; and as he speaks, he wraps his robe about him 
with a manifest feeling of discomfort at the recollection, min- 
gled with some loftiness of manner, and with an air of in- 
4 



38 JUSTIFICATION 

credulity — " I saw those stripes ; they took off his robe, and 
with the rods which the Roman lictors use, they struck him 
till the blood came." Turning about with a half-concealed 
expression of scorn, somewhat chastised with pity for the 
deluded victims of such a superstition, he adds, " They say 
that ' by his stripes we are healed ; ' i propitiation/ they call 
his death, ' for the sins of the whole world.' " 

Now, this seemingly absurd proposition, this " stumbling 
block," this "foolishness," is our gospel. All the forms of 
ridicule have been exhausted upon it, and upon those who 
believe it; and yet more young men in our colleges have, 
this year, embraced it than ever before in the same space 
of time. We are as literal in our belief as to the suf- 
ferings and death of Jesus, as we are with regard to the 
Passover in Egypt, and the brazen serpent in the wilder- 
ness. Nor do we consider the atonement by Christ merely 
as an " at-one-ment " — putting the effect for the cause; but 
the atonement we hold to be " the offering up of the body of 
Jesus Christ once for all." Every thing that Christ did — his 
becoming flesh, suffering, and dying, and rising again — all are 
parts of a great whole ; while the death which was endured is 
the essential thing, the rest being subordinate, but necessary 
in connection with the infinite sacrifice for sin. 

We come to God feeling that we deserve all which is 
threatened against sin ; that we have nothing to plead as a 
bar to punishment, excepting that which God has himself 
appointed, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Pleading that sac- 
rifice, we are forgiven. This is justification ; "it is an act of 
God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and ac- 
cepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness 
of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone." The 
moral character of Christ is not imputed to us ; no transfer 
is made of his personal goodness, but his atoning work is " im- 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 39 

puted," " reckoned to us for righteousness." " To him that 
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the un- 
godly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Forgiveness 
of sins is immediately bestowed upon every one who seeks for 
pardon through Christ. These two passages interpret each 
other : " Therefore, being justified by faith, w T e have peace 
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;" and, " There is 
therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ 
Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." 
Gratuitous pardon comes to every penitent sinner through the 
sufferings and death of Christ ; so that the simple, heartfelt 
acceptance of it has the effect, by the appointment of God, to 
clear the soul from condemnation. All its sins are at once 
blotted out. God is at peace with us ; we are accepted of 
him, in consequence of this one act of receiving Christ. A 
change of heart by the Holy Spirit accompanies this act of 
saving faith. 

If this be so, we cannot wonder that they who believe this, 
and experience it, say with the apostle, " God forbid that I 
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The 
Word, "the same in substance, equal in power and glory," 
with the Father, becomes, for us, a child, a man of sorrows, a 
sacrifice for sin ; his sufferings and death are an atonement 
for " every man ; " pardon is bestowed at once, and without 
reserve, upon those who plead the Saviour's death in seeking 
to be reconciled to God ; all which they had forfeited by sin 
is restored to them ; God has given to them eternal life ; they 
shall never perish ; no man shall pluck them out of his hands. 
Hence the joy which attends religious conversion, and ob- 
taining a hope of pardon and acceptance with God, of deliver- 
ance from the reigning power of sin, and from the wrath to 
come. The consciousness of loving God and of being loved 
by him, and of having a spiritual relation to him established 



40 JUSTIFICATION 

forever, with all the present and prospective blessings con- 
nected with it, is the greatest happiness of which our natures 
are capable ; all things are counted loss in comparison with it ; 
the desires of the soul have at last found objects commensurate 
with them; and thus the kingdom of heaven is like that 
" treasure hid in a field, the which when a man hath found, 
he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he 
hath, and buyeth that field." 

It will be plainly seen, therefore, why, if all this be true, 
we make so much of that first act of believing on the Lord 
Jesus as a sacrifice for sins — of being justified. It is the 
outer door pass-key ; it commands the whole house. No one 
is accepted of God until the act of justification has taken place ; 
and this takes place at once upon the exercise of faith in the 
Redeemer as a sacrifice for sins. 

The great burden of evangelical preaching, therefore, is 
" Christ crucified ; " this was the great theme of apostolic 
preaching — pardon through faith in the death of Christ. 
" To him give all the prophets witness, that whosoever be- 
lieveth on him shall receive the remission of sins." 

AN OBJECTION CONSIDERED. 

The plan of justifying and saving us through the righteous- 
ness of another, appears to some, theoretically, to be dangerous 
to good morals, by affording encouragement to sin. 

This objection Paul recognizes, and answers, when he 
declares that Christ is not the minister of sin, and when he 
exclaims, " Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound ? " 
" Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under 
grace ? God forbid ! " He does not answer the objection 
with a logical argument, but with an impassioned exclama- 
tion. 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 41 

He who is really pardoned by this method, cannot turn " the 
gnce of God into licentiousness;" they who have had spuri- 
ous repentance and faith, may wrest this doctrine, as they also 
do the scriptures, to their own destruction. The most effect- 
ual way to secure our obedience seems to be, to forgive us 
freely and at once; to make us see and feel that even our 
future imperfections and sins are provided for by the suffer- 
ings which were endured on the tree ; and then to constrain 
us by the love of Christ, by the remembrance of what it was 
necessary for him to become, and to do, and to suffer, on 
account of sin, to live not to ourselves, but to him that died for 
us and rose again. Such is the divine method of securing the 
love and obedience of fallen men ; its success is recorded in 
the history of the gospel as exemplified in the lives and deaths 
of a multitude whom no man can number. 

This objection to the way of salvation by free grace, is also 
effectually answered by considering that 

A CHANGE OF HEART ACCOMPANIES PARDON. 

The work of the Holy Spirit upon the heart is, equally 
with the work of Christ, a part of this great plan and method 
of salvation. There is a preternatural change wrought in 
every one who believes in Christ in the way now explained. 
Christ says, "No man can come to me except the Father, 
which hath sent me, draw him. It is written in the Proph- 
ets, And they shall be all taught of God." It requires no 
such divine influence to believe any thing else, or. to come to 
any one else, as in coming to Christ and to his way of saving 
us. If faith in Christ be wholly of ourselves, if there be 
nothing supernatural connected with it, no divine influence is 
needed any more than in a change of political opinion. 

If a phenomenon took place on learning a certain tongue, 
or in adopting any theory of morals or science, similar to that 
4 * 



42 JUSTIFICATION 

which occurs every where under the preaching of justification 
by Christ, it would be a prominent subject in all our books of 
mental philosophy. We send Christian missionaries to Green- 
land, to India, to Africa, to the South Sea Islands, and 
straightway the letters of the missionaries contain accounts of 
those same religious experiences which occur under our own 
observation. Leaving out the names of places and persons, 
one could not tell whether the conversions occurred in our 
land, or Otaheite, or Burmah, or Constantinople, or among the 
Hottentots. 

Without this supernatural work in the soul, the prospect 
with every one who believes in Christ would be deficient. 
But when the Holy Spirit changes the heart, as he does in 
every case where faith in Christ is exercised, instantly the 
current of the affections begins to run in an opposite direction 
from their former sinful course. It is no less so than if one 
should lift the seaward end of a river's bed, and cause the 
stream to flow back in new channels which had been opened 
for it, they having a declivity which before prevented the 
stream from flowing into them ; but now the water finds its 
way easily, in hitherto strange directions, and accomplishes 
new and important uses. 

So God turns the current of the soul at the moment when 
he "doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, 
freely offered to us in the gospel." But does the current al- 
ways run smoothly ? Are there no cross currents, no adverse 
winds ? All through life there will be conflict. This itself 
however, is a proof that the great change has taken place. 
Before, the sinful feelings met with no resistance, except from 
conscience, whose power became more and more feeble ; but 
now, a new principle is implanted ; now, the renewed nature 
makes resistance, and amidst great sorrows and trials, and oc- 
casionally being brought into captivity to the law of sin, -which 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 43 

is in the members, nevertheless prevails. The house of Saul 
becomes weaker and weaker, and the house of David waxes 
stronger and stronger. Then the truth of those words is ex- 
perienced, " He that is born of God sinneth not." As we 
say that, in a healthy state, one can not eat wormwood, and yet 
every one has power to do it, so sin has become uncongenial 
with the new taste ; the new nature has governing desires which 
are opposite to the old ; one is surprised to find how, without 
effort, he relinquishes old habits, pleasures, friendships, pros- 
pects, which now are seen to be contrary to the will of God, 
and to spiritual progress. Prayer now becomes easy and 
natural ; it is not confined to certain times and places, though 
good habits and system are carefully cherished ; but in the 
street, at work, in company, the heart readily turns to God. 
Through life, the Holy Spirit carries on that work which be- 
gins with believing on Christ as a sacrifice for sins, and 
with being consequently justified by the act of God's free 
grace. 

Many who do not hear the way of salvation set forth as 
evangelical Christians believe it, and many of those who do, 
earnestly desire to experience this change of heart. Their 
efforts after goodness have been like climbing a sand hill ; they 
have never obtained that sense of acceptance with God which 
is necessary to a solid peace. 

The reason of their ill success is, that they have not direct- 
ed their efforts towards that one essential thing which stands 
as the door to all religious experience, and to which Christ 
refers when he says, " If any man will enter in, he shall be 
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture." He is him- 
self " the door ; " and believing on him as a sacrifice for sins, 
accepting pardon through his blood, is " entering in." Now, 
here is a great wonder among the wonders of infinite grace, 



44 JUSTIFICATION 

that upon receiving one unspeakable gift, God gives us another ; 
for, if we come to him renouncing our own merit, pleading no 
works for justification, but just as we are, accepting pardon 
through the sufferings and death of Christ, there is bestowed 
upon us, at one and the same time, with the pardon of all our 
sins, the renewal of our natures by the power of the Holy 
Ghost. God not only provides for us a substitute in the per- 
son of the incarnate Word, to satisfy the requirements of di- 
vine justice, and invites, and, to use his own words, " be- 
seeches" us (" as though God did beseech you") to be recon- 
ciled to God, but upon our acceptance of Christ, (itself his 
own gracious working in us to will and to do of his good 
pleasure,) he confers that great grace, regeneration, a change 
which the Bible describes by such terms as " new creature," 
" raised from the dead," " life," " born of God." Hence it is 
said of Christ, " To as many as received him, to them gave he 
power to become the sons of God, even to as many as believe 
on his name ; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will 
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." 

ANOTHER OBJECTION : " IT IS TOO EASY." 

The thought of being pardoned freely and at once, without 
the allowance of any thing on our part which can in any way 
constitute a claim, or be in any sense an equivalent, con- 
founds all our previous ideas of the way to be saved. "We 
are not prepared to meet with such gratuitous, such abound- 
ing, love and mercy. Could we but invest repentance, or 
faith, or submission to God, with something meritorious — could 
we suffer, or make sacrifices, or perform labors, and feel that it 
was in view of these things that we are forgiven, — this would 
satisfy us ; but to receive pardon as a free gift is a perfect 
acknowledgment of utter helplessness and ill desert ; and it is 
not till we have tried every other method of being reconciled 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 45 

to God, in vain, that we accede to his method of saving men. 
Then the wisdom and love of God in redemption astonish us ; 
we see how perfectly God has maintained the honor of his 
law by making such an atonement for sin before he would 
forgive the sinner; we see how safe the sinner is who is justi- 
fied " by the righteousness of God through faith," instead of 
by his own wretched attempts at obedience ; the infinite mag- 
nanimity (for want of a better word) which there is in blotting 
out our transgressions ; above all, the stupendous sacrifice and 
sufferings of the Son of God in our behalf, awaken gratitude 
and love which are not equalled by any emotions of which the 
heart is capable. All objection to the plan of salvation as 
being too easy, is lost in the thought of the glory and praise 
which redound to the character of God by such a method of 
saving men ; we sink into nothingness in comparison with it ; 
we hear him say, "I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy 
transgressions for my name's sake, and will not remember thy 
sins." We see that we cannot vie with the love of God any 
more than we can contend with his power ; that we must be 
willing to be loved, and to be saved by infinite mercy. 

IF I BELIEVE, SHALL I 
PERSEVERE ? " 

"When this way of being justified and accepted of God has 
been plainly made known, it is a very common objection — 
indeed, it is almost universal — "If I accept this method of 
pardon,. I still have no security that I shall persevere." In- 
deed, the connection between believing on Christ and contin- 
uing in the Christian life, is not apparent, till we find that 
there is an absolute certainty of being saved, if we have been 
justified through faith in Christ. That one step insures every 
other, and leads to final salvation. One passage of Scripture 
asserts this in the plainest terms — " And whom he justified, 



46 JUSTIFICATION 

them he also glorified ; " and there are other passages 

equally direct. There is nothing more effectual to excite 

hope and confidence in the mind of a sincere inquirer who 

seems just ready to believe in Christ, than to show him that 

his whole future Christian life is as really included in the 

covenant promises of God, as his justification is upon his first 

act of saving faith. " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and 

thou shalt be saved." " He that believeth on the Son shall 

not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto 

life." 

" The love divine 

"Which made us thine, 
Shall keep us thine, forever." 

All this will be done in the same connection with our own 
voluntary efforts, as in the case of our justification, in which 
we were as really active as though all depended upon our- 
selves. So it will be with our perseverance in the Christian 
life ; and our mistakes, and follies, and backslidings, and 
afflictions, and repentances, all the mercies of God — in short, 
the whole discipline of life — will be employed to accomplish 
that which will be, nevertheless, a9» certain as though we were 
at once transferred, upon being justified, to a state of complete 
sanctification. Words of encouragement, therefore, need to 
be addressed to those who dread the thought of failure after 
having begun the Christian life. It is this dread which holds 
them back, in multitudes of cases, from complying with the 
conditions of salvation, or, having done it, from avowing their 
faith in Christ by a Christian profession. 

They readily acknowledge that the first step towards 
acceptance with God, the work of justification, is wholly of 
grace. They cannot atone for their sins ; they furnish no 
righteousness as the ground of their acceptance with God. 
Here they rely implicitly on sovereign love and pow^r ; and, 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 47 

in doing so, they find themselves the subjects of a plan of 
salvation in which all the attributes of the Godhead meet and 
are illustrated. This they joyfully acknowledge ; they are 
willing to trust implicitly to the power and goodness of God 
in the great concern of being justified. 

Now, as the work of justification is all of God, the work of 
sanctification is also his. If he delivers from condemnation, 
he will keep us from it ; if he sends a Redeemer, he will send 
the Holy Spirit ; whom he pardons he will save. We have 
no anxiety with respect to the competency of Christ and his 
atoning work ; we are sure that he is able to save them to the 
uttermost who come unto God by him ; and now, the Holy 
Spirit is equally competent to accomplish his part of the 
work. As we do not undertake to atone for our sins, and 
cannot provide a way for our justification, but leave it to 
Christ, so we must leave our sanctification to the Holy Spirit. 
But in both cases we employ our own powers and faculties. 
We act when God justifies us, ' striving according to his work- 
ing which worketh in us mightily ; ' for we are never more 
conscious of perfect freedom than when we are under the 
most powerful divine influences. In like manner, when the 
Holy Spirit sanctifies us, we are made " willing in the day of 
his power." 

Thus we'have a complete answer to the common objection, 
" I fear that, if I exercise faith in Christ, and make a public 
avowal of it, I may not persevere. Failure would be disas- 
trous to my peace ; I should be a reproach to the Christian 
name." 

Seeing that all are liable to failure in the Christian life, 
what if all should postpone their public profession of religion 
till they are just ready to enter heaven ? Then there would 
be no danger, indeed, of bringing a reproach on religion ; but 
where would religion itself be, seeing that religion exists only 



48 JUSTIFICATION 

in the lives of its professors ? — for there is no religion in the 
world any further than there are those who follow Christ. 
"We are to remember, therefore, — and we should be encour- 
aged by the truth to enter upon a Christian life, — that to 
sanctify us is as much a part of the divine plan in our re- 
demption, as to justify us. " For whom he did predestinate, 
them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also 
justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." 
Justification takes place at once ; but, while sanctification 
extends to the last moment of life, it is as sure as pardon and 
justification. 

All that one need concern himself to do, therefore, is to 
obtain peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By 
coming as intelligently as he ever did any act, and acknowledg- 
ing his sinfulness and just condemnation, and complying with 
the offered terms of pardon, — that is, a heartfelt acceptance of 
Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sins, and asking to have it im- 
puted to him for his justification, — he will at once have peace 
with God ; there will be for him " no condemnation." This 
is the simple, plain method which God has appointed, by which 
men are to be saved ; to this they always come after long and 
wearisome endeavors to obtain peace by other means ; they 
then perceive that their error has been in trying to do too 
many things, and all of them entirely aside from the simple, 
essential act of accepting free forgiveness through the 
infinite merits of the Redeemer, without works or merit on 
their part. These remarks apply especially to those who, for 
a long time, profess that they wish to be Christians* and do not 
see why they have never experienced religion. The reason 
is, that there is only one way of being accepted of God, and 
that is, by relying wholly on Christ, without any personal 
merit. We must neither leave one sin behind us, nor bring any 
good work with us, when we come to Christ, but with all our 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 49 

sins, and with all our destitution of personal goodness, we 
must appear before him to be forgiven, wholly through the 
sufferings and death which he, of his infinite mercy, endured 
on our account. 

One definite thing should therefore engage the attention and 
efforts of every one who wishes to be a Christian ; and that is, 
To be pardoned. He who fixes his mind solely on this, and 
strives to obtain it, will seek in the right direction ; for he will 
thereby be led to regard himself as a sinner, and not merely 
as one who is unhappy and in peril ; the nature and ill desert 
of sin will present themselves to his mind ; he will be led to 
see his utter inability to make satisfaction for his want of con- 
formity to the law of God, and for his transgressions ; he will 
see and feel the need of something beyond himself to make 
satisfaction to the law of God, whose penalty he will find he 
has incurred. Ceasing from all vague efforts to experience 
something, he knows not what, which he hopes will open some 
unknown door of hope before him, he will come at once to the 
simple conclusion that he is helpless, that he is condemned, 
that he must perish unless God has mercy upon him ; and then 
he will see that " God was in Christ reconciling the world unto 
himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." 

We should not have devised such a way of salvation. It is 
an explicit revelation from heaven, " the wisdom of God in a 
mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before 
the foundation of the world for our glory ; which none of the 
princes of this world knew ; for had they known it, they would 
not have crucified the Lord of glory." It is made known to 
every humble inquirer; it is hidden from the wise and 
prudent ; they who approach it with self-conceit, or with de- 
bate, or to satisfy any preconceived wishes, will never find it. 
When Peter made his confession of Christ on a certain occa- 
sion, the Saviour said to him, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- 
5 



50 JUSTIFICATION 

jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
my Father which is in heaven." Of the same import are 
those words — " No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but 
by the Holy Ghost." " All that the Father hath given me 
shall come to me ; and him that cometh unto me I will in no 
wise cast out." 

One word, therefore, expresses our need, our duty, our 
privilege ; and that is, Pardon. Do I need it ? and why ? 
How has it been procured for me ? How may I obtain it ? 
"What consequences flow from it ? What will follow if I am 
not pardoned ? We must give up our vague thoughts and 
endeavors with regard to religion, and fix our thoughts wholly 
on this : How may I obtain forgiveness of sin ? This ques- 
tion has now been considered and answered. Whoever, 
therefore, feels that he has sinned, and has relentings of heart, 
and wishes to be at peace with God, has only to come, as 
Israel in the desert did to the brazen serpent, and look to the 
crucified Saviour, and by as simple an act of faith as those 
wounded men exercised in that gratuitous provision for their 
cure, he must put his trust in that Just One, suffering, dying, 
rising, interceding for him. In doing so, he will be saved. 
All his sins will be forgiven at once. The Holy Spirit will 
renew his heart. He will be " received into the number and 
have a right to all the privileges of the sons of God." His 
preparation for heaven will proceed from step to step, and he 
will be 'kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.' 
All this, if we are willing to humble ourselves, and receive 
as a free gift to lost and perishing sinners, we may now 
receive without money and without price. We seek in vain 
for peace and safety until we thus submit to the way of justifi- 
cation through faith in Christ. We go about with unforgiven 
sin upon us; with no covenant to keep us one moment out of 



AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 51 

perdition, and adding to all our sins the guilt of rejecting a 
crucified Saviour. Therefore, " whosoever will let him: 

TAKE THE WATER OF LIFE FREELY." " BEHOLD I HAVE 
PREPARED MY DINNER ; MY OXEN AND MY FATLINGS ARE 
KILLED, AND ALL THINGS ARE READY; COME UNTO THE 
MARRIAGE." 



III. 
OUR BIBLE 



There must be such a book as the Bible is held tc be 
by the great majority of those who possess it — an inspired, 
all-sufficient revelation from God. 

The same reasoning holds good here which Christopher Co- 
lumbus used with regard to the globe. He insisted that there 
must be a continent in the west ; that it was necessary, in 
order to maintain the equilibrium of the planet. He argued, 
moreover, that there was, of necessity, a nearer way to Asia 
than by the Cape of Good Hope. In faith, which could not 
be shaken because it was founded in the nature of things, he 
persevered in his search, till the sea weeds of the Bahama 
Islands floated by, and the perfumes of San Salvador came on 
the night airs to his ship. 

Believing in the existence of a wise and benevolent God, 
we may, with more confidence than that which made Colum- 
bus look for a new world, declare that God has always given, 
and will always grant, to man, a perfect directory concerning 
the divine character and will, one about which an honest mind 
can make no mistake in its endeavors to learn its duty. It 
may be by direct communications from God himself to man ; 
or by messengers, of whose authority to speak for God there 
sau be no room for doubt; or in a written form. It is impos- 
5 * (53) 



54 OUR BIBLE. 

sible that there should not be such revelations. Thus, know- 
ing that God will make men to dwell on the earth, we might 
insist beforehand, with absolute certainty, that he will furnish 
them with means of communicating their ideas one with an- 
other. It would not be benevolent, it is said, to suffer human 
beings, with their instincts and wants, to be, like so many 
islands, cut off, one from another, and each from all, by being 
deprived of signs and symbols to express their thoughts. 
There is no more necessity, in the nature of things, for lan- 
guage, than there is that intelligent and accountable beings 
should be informed, by some infallible and all-sufficient meth- 
ods, what they are to believe concerning God, and what duties 
God requires of them. He who made the human hand, and 
has adapted the senses to the external world with such benev- 
olent regard to the happiness and welfare of man; the God 
who has made medicinal herbs to grow in every clime suited to 
the diseases incident to that region ; who fixed in heaven 

" the stedfast starre 
That was in ocean waves yet never wet, 
But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farre^ 
To all that in the wide deepe wandring arre ; " 

and who, in process of time, gave man the compass, and then 
the power of steam, and then the electric telegraph, has not 
failed, — it would be absurd, it requires too much credulity, to 
think that he has failed to bestow on man that which he 
needs above all things, and without which every thing else is 
comparatively without value -an all-sufficient revelation 
concerning his God, which, for its great purpose, is as reliable, 
and, in efiect, as complete, as though God held personal inter- 
course with every man, face to face. 

God at first communicated with men in person and by word 
of mouth; then by angels, and by fellow-men ; -he, neverthe- 
less, himself interposing continually with special disclosures 



OUR BIBLE. 55 

of his will, to leave men in no doubt as to that will and their 
duty. For reasons known only to himself, he has seen fit to 
withhold these immediate, personal communications with men. 
Has our need of a divine revelation ceased ? The same ne- 
cessity exists, and will continue to exist, that man should have 
an unerring guide as to truth and duty. If we have no such 
guide, the world, instead of advancing, has retrograded ; and 
where is that benevolent God who, in the arts and sciences,, 
by sea and land, in gold mines, in the coal, in surgery, and 
even in war, has progressively revealed his kind regard for 
the convenience of man, and his desire to alleviate his woes ? 
Has he taken from us the most indispensable and precious of 
all his gifts — an authentic, all-sufficient source of knowledge 
respecting himself? In every thing else, we have made great 
advances upon those who have gone before us; the law of 
progression is every where seen in human affairs ; but now, 
if we have no word of God, on which we can rely with as 
much certainty as Adam could upon that voice of the Lord 
which he heard walking in the garden in the cool of the day ; 
if Pharaoh, with the messengers of the Almighty before him, 
enjoyed greater privileges than we, sinners of the nineteenth 
century ; if Israel in the desert had its cloud by day and pil- 
lar of fire by night, its door of the tabernacle covered with 
the sign of the Almighty's presence, its mercy seat, its audible 
voice, saying, " I am the Lord ; " and if all the people of God, 
even the children — the Samuels, the Josiahs — had clear, au- 
thentic disclosures of the divine will, and we enjoy nothing of 
the kind, but are left each to guess his way to heaven from 
certain writings which derive their authority only from tfceir 
venerableness, but whose authority, even, is subjected to the 
varying opinions of men, — we may say with confidence that 
it is the greatest mystery in the whole providence <?f God. We 
hear it said that the Bible is the most wonderful of books. A 



56 OUR BIBLE. 

greater wonder, however, would be found in this, that there 
should be no Bible, no book claiming to be the word of God, 
possessing all the authority, the completeness, and sufficiency 
of a perfect revelation. The Bible is a wonderful book if it 
be true ; it is, for every reason, more wonderful if it be not 
true. For then the whole analogy of God's providential deal- 
ings with men, by which he has in almost every thing ad- 
vanced the race, and in nothing has deprived it of real bless- 
ings and privileges previously enjoyed, would be contradicted 
in the very thing in which we should most expect to behold 
the proof and illustration of his beneficence. We are, there- 
fore, prepared to claim for the Bible, not only that it must be, 
and is, an inspired, all-sufficient revelation from God, but also 
that, as such, it is in no wise inferior to any form of revelation 
which God has ever made to men. 



ONE BOOK FOR ALL FUTURE TIME. 

One book for all times and all countries, it is said, is im- 
practicable ; and we cannot expect that all nations will receive 
it as the one only authorized and an all-sufficient directory. 

Yet we know that one book, on a single subject, can be 
made to answer an individual, separate purpose for all future 
time ; instances of this occur to every intelligent reader ; and 
therefore we cannot see why one book could not be made by 
infinite Wisdom to answer every purpose relating to faith. Its 
object, if such a book is made, will be to teach man the knowl- 
edge of God and his duty. There is no reason why a book, 
composed, as to its different parts, through a very long period, 
may not sufficiently illustrate every subject relating to God 
and his will, so as to be an all-sufficient guide in matters of 
faith. 

To make a volume for all ages, for every language, suited 



OUR BIBLE. 5T 

to all the conditions of men, must require infinite wisdom, no 
less than any work of the divine mind. Had men or angels 
been deputed to make such a volume for the whole human 
race, not to be superseded as a whole, and as a whole never 
to be antiquated, — ever fresh, always profitable, capable of 
interesting the highest and the lowest understanding, and men 
under every sky, and in every condition of human life, — their 
wisdom would have been put to the severest trial in deter- 
mining what to insert, and more especially what to omit, in 
what ways to secure variety, what style to adopt ; in short, 
every thing which enters into the construction of a book would, 
under the circumstances, have presented formidable difficulties. 
It seems as though, after long consultation and experimenting, 
they would have reported unfavorably with regard to the 
possibility of making such a volume, and would have asked 
to be discharged from the duty; and, if the book must be 
made, they would have represented that nothing could be 
more appropriately the work of infinite Wisdom than to make 
the Bible. Accordingly, we find that Inspiration is repre- 
sented to be as specifically the work of the Holy Spirit as the 
Cross is identified with Christ. 

If men early forsook the worship of God, and entailed idol- 
atry upon their descendants, those descendants were not left 
without admonitions respecting Jehovah, by the fame of 
Israel's deliverances, and by the knowledge of that wonderful 
journey through the desert. The " years of release," too, in 
after time, must have sent many witnesses of the true religion 
far and wide. 

LOCAL AND TEMPORARY FEATURES OF THE BIBLE. 

It is made by some an objection to the Bible that much of 
it is local and temporary, and was not originally addressed to 
the whol *. world. A collection of Hebrew histories, narratives 



58 OUR BIBLE. 

of personal adventure, lyrics, maxims, messages to particular 
kings and states, is made ; and this is held to be, in part, a 
revelation from God addressed to the entire human race for 
all succeeding time, as the expression of his will and the rule 
of their duty. It is asked whether the publications of the 
Massachusetts Historical Society might not as properly be set 
forth as the rule of political and civil life in the United States 
for all coming time. 

If those publications, and they alone, could be proved to be 
of divine origin, men would feel that the principles contained in 
them could, possibly, be of universal application. But, if there 
were a paper among them containing plans and specifications 
for a state house, would it follow that all the state houses were 
forever to be built after that model ? No ; and the directions 
with respect to the tabernacle and the temple are not intended 
as directions for the building of places of worship. How, 
then, it is said, can we call the minute details of the tabernacle 
a revelation to the whole earth ? It is said, Let us discrimi- 
nate. There is a word of God, here and there, in the Bible ; 
but do not require us to believe that the directions to Bezaleel 
or Solomon respecting the snuffers, and the censers, and the 
brazen sea, are a revelation to people in North America, three 
thousand, nay, perhaps ten thousand, years afterwards ; or that 
Paul's message about his cloak and the parchments are an 
inspired revelation to the christianized Sandwich Islanders. 

According to the benevolent and condescending manner in 
which God has been pleased to educate the race, there are 
some divine communications to them, now on record, whose 
chief purpose was local and temporary ; and at the same time 
they are still, and ever will be, of such use to mankind that 
they cannot be spared from the sacred canon. All that relates 
to the ceremonial law is of this nature. The minute directions 
about the altars and their victims are of no specific use to those 



OUR BIBLE. 59 

who have ceased to offer sacrifices ; yet, if Christ be the Lamb 
of God which taketh away the sin of the world, every thing 
relating to the preparation of the world for his coming and his 
sacrifice is important and interesting ; it cannot be taken away 
without impairing the historical evidence which belongs to the 
great sacrifice for sin. He that would separate Leviticus, for 
example, from the New Testament, might be expected, in 
presenting us with a water lily, to cut off the stem close to the 
calyx. Every speech, every letter, every tradition, relating 
to our revolutionary war and national independence, is now 
extremely interesting, whether it gives evidence of strong- 
sighted vision respecting the future, or appears only as a faint 
gleam in the mind of some yearning patriot. We do not 
despise these things ; they were the beginnings of our national 
scriptures ; and by reading them we more fully understand 
and appreciate our whole political history. Who objects to 
them as a part of the nation's biography ? 

Thus the men who worshipped at the ancient altar had " re- 
ceived not the promise, God having provided some better thing 
for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." Our 
superstructure is now firm and strong, because of that under- 
pinning which it received in the days of the Old Testament. 
Some who criticise the Books of the Chronicles, and the Book 
of Esther, and also particular portions of other Old Testa- 
ment books, as wholly local, and now, as they tell us, unedi- 
fying, and incapable of being, in any sense to us, a revelation, 
forget that these things were, to resume the figure, really the 
underpinning by which our Christian faith is supported, though 
it requires some discernment of spiritual architecture to per- 
ceive it. Take, for instance, a passage which will serve several 
purposes of illustration at once. The revolting story of Judah's 
incest breaks in abruptly upon the narrative in Genesis. Its 
seeming intrusiveness and uselessness, but, above all, its offen- 



60 OUR BIBLE. 

sive character, make it a stumbling block to many an honest 
and conscientious reader. But, when we come to the gene- 
alogy in the first chapter of Matthew, we find that the fruit 
of this incest is a link in a chain on which the credibility of 
the Messiah's lineage depends. True .to history, the direful 
origin of one ancestor of the Messiah is plainly given ; all 
questions of descent, which, in royal or in noble houses, or 
among heirs at law, have been the occasion of trouble without 
measure, are settled, in this case, beyond dispute, by the 
intrepid honesty of the narrative. The story of the Levite 
and his concubine is another instance of the same kind with 
the foregoing. Why introduce such a sickening tale into the 
sacred word ? For one most important reason, if for no other. 
The event there related was the occasion of the most fearful 
civil war which ever happened to Israel. The tribe of Ben- 
jamin was greatly depopulated by it. The history of the 
Hebrew nation demanded that all the incidents belonging to 
such an eventful page of it should be faithfully recorded. 
And is there no moral for every nation in that sad passage of 
Israel's history ? Every people which is divided on any moral 
questions relating to their internal affairs, is instructed by the 
spirit and the manner of the proceedings which, in this case, 
resulted in the slaughter of more than ninety thousand breth- 
ren by the hands of brethren. 

The seemingly useless, and, to us, the unedifying, lists of 
names in several places of the Old Testament had great 
importance in determining claims to estates, settling boun- 
daries, and establishing the rights of personal property. All 
these things were necessary to bring forward the purposes of 
God relating to the Jewish people, and thus to prepare the 
way for the Messiah's kingdom. That is not a comprehensive 
view of things which now saunters among the older parts of 
the divine economy, and demands that one thing and another 



OUE BIBLE. 61 

be hewn down because it does not obviously, and in a striking 
way, contribute to a direct modern use. It requires consid- 
eration, good sense, an appreciative eye and heart, to know 
whether a thing is or is not of use ; and the Goths and Van- 
dals who failed here, have given their names and reputation 
to others. Since their day, indeed, none are more liable to 
just reflections upon them in the same line, than some who, 
with great pride of scholarship, have proved themselves inca- 
pable of appreciating the historical uses of the Old Testament, 
in some of its less practical parts. 

The Book of Esther is much spoken against as professedly 
a part of revelation, because it is wholly confined to Jewish 
affairs, and relates the " incredible " story of a nation doomed 
to massacre with notice served upon them, eleven months be- 
forehand ; of seventy thousand Persians being killed by this 
same people, who escape the intended massacre ; and, more- 
over, the book does not contain the name of God, nor make 
recognition of his providence. 

But might we not almost as well complain that the Build- 
er's name is not set in stars on the firmament of heaven, as 
that the providence of God is 'not emblazoned in words upon 
a history which, from beginning to end, teaches, most impres- 
sively, the doctrine of providence ? In nothing is it seen more 
conspicuously than in the notice, eleven months beforehand, 
which was given to the devoted nation, who were, at the ex- 
piration of that time, to be cut off. Haman was led to 
consult his heathen god as to the day when the massacre 
which he had contrived should be perpetrated. " In the first 
month they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day 
to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month," 1 — 
not that they spent so much time in casting it, but they 
tried each day of the year, by lot, to determine when the 

' Esther iii. 7- 




62 OUR BIBLE. 

massacre should take place. " The lot is cast into the 
lap but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord." He 
makes the lot wander to the eleventh month. Time is thus 
given the Jews for preparation, and also for a change in their 
affairs, such as came to pass. The great feast of Purim, 
which to this day is celebrated by the Jews in commemora- 
tion of this deliverance, and on which the Book of Esther is 
publicly read, as we read our Declaration of Independence on 
the nation's birthday, is a memorial of divine providence, 
w r hich serves a purpose such as no abstract maxims with re- 
gard to confidence in God, whether addressed to men or na- 
tions, could possibly accomplish. 

Public events recorded in the Old Testament have a singu- 
larly powerful effect on the private conscience and heart of 
an attentive, prayerful reader. " I understand, indeed," says 
Professor Stuart, " what is meant when we are forbidden to 
exult over misfortunes. But when Edom is held up before my 
eyes by Obadiah, as having rushed upon the Jews in the day of 
their humiliation by the power of Babylon ; when the imbit- 
tered enmity, the spirit of vengeance and rapacity, and the 
unspeakable meanness of the Edomites, and their consequent 
punishment, are embodied, and made palpable, and held up to 
open view in this way, — I am far more affected, and even in- 
structed by it, than I am by the abstract precept in question." 
So true is it that " whatsoever things were written aforetime 
were written for our learning, that we, through patience and 
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." 

As to the lateness of the time when the Bible was finished, 
it is well known that for a long period God communicated 
with men by word of mouth, often immediately, and also by 
the ministrations of angels and men. The Old Testament 
grew to its present size while events were occurring to make 
up an instructive history of divine providence; and during 



OUR BIBLE. 63 

this period God, at sundry times and in divers manners, was 
speaking to the fathers by the prophets. We will not impugn 
his wisdom in deciding as he did when the fulness of time 
should be regarded as having come, and the Messiah should 
appear. Unless the world had been eternal, its creation must 
inevitably have been " late," in one sense, let it have taken 
place when it would ; for as eternity had no beginning, the ques- 
tion could still have been asked, why the world was not made 
sooner. Though the New Testament greatly enhances the value 
of the Old, and was necessarily connected with the progress of 
the divine purposes, and must, therefore, in due time, be writ- 
ten, yet the Old Testament was all sufficient for the knowl- 
edge of God and salvation ; for the apostle bids Timothy re- 
member, " From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith 
which is in Christ Jesus." 

If it be required that, to make a proper Bible, every ques- 
tion, and every case, which can possibly arise, shall be recorded 
and considered, we must abandon the idea of one portable con- 
venient volume ; and the great majority of the world will be 
prevented, by the expensiveness of such records, from possess- 
ing a written revelation. Divine wisdom is conspicuous as to 
the size of the Bible, making it accessible to all. God had 
kept the nations apart for ages, by withholding from them the 
means of easy and rapid transition from place to place ; but 
when many ran to and fro, knowledge was also increased, and 
the Bible came forth in forms suited to universal distribution - 
But who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been 
his counsellor, as to the long period during which a completed 
Bible was withheld from the race ? Enough, from age to 
age, was afforded, in various ways, so that God did not leave 
himself without witness ; but why the Bible, in its completed 
form, has been enjoyed for only eighteen hundred years past, 



64 OUR BIBLE. 

is a question which must be left without any answer except 
that such was the divine will. 



LOST BOOKS OF SCRIPTURE. 

It is said that some inspir.ed books have been lost. They 
fulfilled their purpose, however, and were suffered to perish. 
The ark of God has perished, with the tables of stone, the 
pot of manna, and Aaron's rod. Many of the words and 
works of Christ were not recorded ; this, however, does not 
weaken the evidence of inspiration in those which have been 
preserved. 

VARIETY OF WRITERS. 

The employment of many men to compose the Bible, instead 
of being an argument against unity of design and origin, is a 
proof of divine wisdom, for it secures a necessary variety of 
style and subject. The seemingly accidental way in which the 
book is made up, — an event, a character, being taken here 
and there, to constitute the volume, — gives the book a charm 
which redeems it from all imputation of monotony. — God 
designed to teach the world, for all time, one instructive les- 
son with regard to his control in human affairs ; how he frus- 
trates wicked men, how he delivers the innocent, and that, in 
times of great extremity, he, by a simple event, can not only 
deliver, but send prosperity. In what way shall he most im- 
pressively teach this ? He causes the Book of Esther to be 
written, and no romantic tale or veritable history illustrates 
in so signal a manner the doctrine of God's providence, wheth- 
er towards a man or a nation. 

He designs to teach this great, important truth, that this 
life is a state of trial, not of reward, and that prosperity and 
adversity are no evidence with regard to character ; that un- 



OUR BIBLE. 65 

questioning submission to God under chastisements is the duty 
of all. 

The Book of Job is prepared, and goes into the inspired 
volume ; those subjects are discussed, illustrated, finished, for 
all generations. 

Devotional poetry, prophecy, history, sententious sayings, 
the history of Christ, and the exposition of Christian doctrines 
and morals, make the volume complete ; it is tested by suc- 
ceeding ages ; the evidences of inspiration in each of its parts 
satisfy its contemporaries, and at length the completed volume 
goes forth to the end of time, the work of infinite wisdom ; 
such, that if Almighty God should now propose to make a 
revelation to the world in the shape of a book, to instruct 
men as to his character and their duty, we see no reason why 
it would not be just such a book as we now have. Had the 
book been written in heaven, on the throne of God, and had 
been visibly handed down to men, it would not be more truly 
the inspired, all-sufficient word and revelation of God than it 
now is. 

HOW THE BIBLE WAS ESTABLISHED. 

The Jewish church, after much investigation and experi- 
ence, protracted through many years, finally settled the ques- 
tion of inspiration with regard to every Hebrew writing that 
laid claim to a divine origin. It is interesting to look at the 
history of opinions with regard to various books professing to 
be divinely inspired, and to watch the waning credit of many 
of them, till at last none but those which remain to the present 
day took their permanent place as the acknowledged word of 
God. 

Great objection is felt by some to this method in which so 
important a thing as a Bible for the whole race, to the end of 
time, should have been produced ; for it appears too accident 
6* 



bb OUR BIBLE. 

al, too entirely human, the result of mere popular opinion, 
aided, perhaps, by influences which were not consistent with 
entire liberty of thought. We know not, it is said, what 
bribes, what coercion, were employed, here and there, to gain 
currency for one book, and to depreciate another. A revela- 
tion from God for the whole race to the end of the world, it 
is claimed, ought to be accompanied with infallible signs of 
its being the work of God ; it should wear a broad seal, which 
none could mistake nor counterfeit. 

To this it may be replied, that the manner in which the 
most essential truths are every where established, corresponds 
to this very method in which the Bible itself was given. 
Those truths are the subjects of investigation and debate ; the 
history of their influence is ascertained ; their present practical 
effect, their consistency, one with another, are considered. 

The laws which regulate the formation of a character, and 
of a reputation, seem to have governed in the establishment of 
the Scriptures as of divine authority. Men in trouble, in 
prison and banishment, under confiscation of goods, bereaved 
of dearest friends for the truth's sake, the sick, the dying, the 
emperor, the peasant, the slave, the counsellor, the sellers of 
purple, the tent makers, the rich and the beggar, were led to 
test the various writings claiming to be inspired ; and the 
result was that some of them were not found to answer the 
purpose of a divine guide; for some unaccountable reason 
there was n o response to them from the recesses of the soul ; 
they did not lodge in the memory ; they were not often quoted ; 
the assemblies in which they were read showed signs of indif- 
ference, and yet men were aroused when certain other manu- 
scripts were unrolled, and the public teachers stood up with 
them for to read. Now, instead of objecting to all this as too 
casual, too much like good and ill luck, caprice, it may rather be 
said that there is something divinely appropriate and beautiful 






OUR BIBLE. 67 

in it, honorable to the human understanding and heart, and lay- 
ing the deepest foundations for a lasting hold upon the confidence 
of the world. An author, whose great desire is to establish his 
doctrines in the approbation and love of men, would prefer to 
have them received, at first, cautiously, and with a spirit of free 
inquiry, and obtain a permanent place in the human mind from 
their intrinsic excellence, and the experimental evidence of their 
adaptedness to the moral feelings of men, rather than obtain 
implicit deference to them from his position. We may, there- 
fore, confidently ask if the way in which the authenticity of the 
Holy Scriptures has been verified, by subjecting them, with 
other writings, claiming inspiration, to the scrutiny of experi- 
ence, be not more in accordance with our ideas of the highest 
liberty, and more honorable to God and man, than though 
they had been enjoined upon us by the simple, direct injunc- 
tion of Heaven. 

If it be said that this method of establishing the authenticity 
of a revelation from Heaven leaves too much to the caprices 
of the human mind, it may be replied, that if the writings in 
question be inspired, and are designed by the Most High to 
be his revelation to the world, they will surely, in some way, 
gain credence ; for his word shall not return to him void ; 
therefore the only question is, In what way do we agree that 
the authority of these writings can best be established? 
Allowing that God will bestow upon us certain inspired writ- 
ings, is there any better way in which they can obtain power 
and authority than by their intrinsic influence over the human 
mind ? Now, if the Holy Scriptures are not inspired, the hold 
which they have gained over the human understanding, con- 
science, and heart, is a greater miracle than their inspiration. 

If it can be shown that the Old Testament Scriptures in 
the time of Christ were altogether genuine, and had not been 
corrupted nor diminished by the Jewish scribes, and if then 



68 OUR BIBLE. 

it appears that the Saviour recognized them as of divine 
authority, we see not how any can refuse to apply the name 
" word of God" to those writings. If errors could creep into 
them and corrupt them in their essential parts, so that no one 
could tell whether they were divine or of merely human origin, 
of course their authority would cease. 

CHRIST DID NOT AMEND THE SCRIPTURES. 

It is remarkable that among the severe reproofs which 
Christ addressed to the Jewish scribes, in which he accused 
them of making the word of God of none effect through their 
traditions, he never accuses them of altering the Scriptures 
On the contrary, he appeals to those Scriptures as the authen- 
tic word of God. If among the received Scriptures there 
were a single book of doubtful authority, we must believe that, 
among his other instructions, he would have taught the people 
what was the true word of God. Much more, if one of those 
books had no right in the sacred canon, the Great Teacher 
would, first of all, have purified the source of religious instruc- 
tion in the writings which were read to the people as the 
words of the Most High. He who made a scourge of small 
cords, and drove out the traffickers from the temple, would not 
have been less jealous against a lying pentateuch or a false 
prophet. Esther, the Song of Solomon, David's imprecations, 
Jonah, were not expunged by Him who, in the Sermon on the 
Mount, reviewed the traditionary laws, corrected the glosses, 
set aside the impositions of the Jewish teachers, and pro- 
nounced " woe " upon those who tithed mint, anise, and cum- 
in, to the neglect of weightier matters ; and surely it were 
a weightier matter to reform a nation's Bible than to correct 
the practices relating to temple offerings. " All things," said 
he, after 1 is resurrection, " must be fulfilled which were written 



OUR BIBLE. 69 

in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, 
concerning me." 

CHRIST LEFT NO WRITING OF HIS OWN. 

Up to that time, he found no occasion to make any new 
inspired book to reform, or to complete, the Old Testament 
Scriptures. The Great Teacher was himself satisfied with 
" the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms." Though he were 
expecting that his disciples would write his own history, it is 
a marvel that he did not write or dictate some book which 
should be a Key, or an Index Expurgatorius, to the Old 
Testament, if there were a hundredth part as much necessity 
for it as some of our freethinkers assert. He, however, had 
nothing to write in emendation of the Old Testament. " He 
saw that it was good." 

NATURE OF INSPIRATION. 

What kind of inspiration does the word of God possess ? 
Or in what sense, and to what extent, is the Bible the word 
of God? 

The answer is, God imparted revelations, guidance, and 
superintendence to the sacred penmen, so that the Holy 
Scriptures were sanctioned by him as his authorized word. 

To paraphrase this proposition: When it was necessary 
that the sacred writers should know things which the human 
mind could not discover, as, for example, future events, or the 
will of God relating to particular things, God made special 
revelations to the writers of the Bible. 

When they were writing histories, God assisted and guided 
their recollections, and provided them with suitable sources 
of information, so that they wrote true history. 

When they recorded common things, he superintended them. 



70 OUR BIBLE. 

so that they made no mistake, nor inserted any thing incon- 
sistent with, or prejudicial to, the harmony of truth, either in 
thought or expression. 

This, it will be perceived, amounts to what is called "plen- 
ary inspiration" from the Latin plenus, full. 

PLENARY INSPIRATION. 

Let us take it for granted that the things recorded in the 
New Testament did actually occur. It would occupy space 
to prove this which cannot now be so employed, especially as 
it is generally admitted that the New Testament, whatever may 
be said of its inspiration, is an honest record of events ; — 
those things happened, which are there narrated by men who 
had nothing of a worldly nature to gain by believing and 
asserting them ; but they did, many of them, suffer stripes, 
imprisonment, persecutions, and death, in attestation of the 
things which they had seen and heard. We take the records 
of these men, sealed with their blood, and from them we prove 
the inspiration of the Old Testament and the New. 

Christ promised those who were to write the New Testament 
that they should be divinely inspired for their work. 

In his last discourse with his disciples before he suffered, 
he said to them, " But the Comforter, which is the Holy 
Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach 
you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance 
whatsoever I have said unto you." " Howbeit, when he, the 
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth ; for 
he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, 
that shall he speak ; and he will show you things to come." 

After his resurrection, Jesus met them, and said, " Peace 
be unto you ; as my Father hath sent me, even so send I 






OUR BIBLE. 71 

you." No commission could be more complete. " And when 
he had said this, he breathed on them and saith unto them, Re- 
ceive ye the Holy Ghost." With such promises, and such a com- 
mission, it is reasonable to believe that whatever they did or 
wrote, professing to be the will and the truth of God, was under 
the full direction of the divin Spirit. Christ here gives them 
an unqualified appointment to act in all things pertaining to his 
religion. But nothing could be of greater importance to the 
world than a faithful record of what he did and said, and cor- 
rect expositions of divine truth for the use of generations in 
all future time. We may rest our belief of the full inspira- 
tion of all which the New Testament contains on this, that 
Jesus Christ promised his disciples that the Holy Ghost 
should abide with them forever, so that in every thing essen- 
tial to correct religious knowledge, they should be led into all 
truth. Two writers of the New Testament are not included 
in the number of those to whom these promises were person- 
ally made. Paul was, however, called to be an apostle by 
Jesus Christ himself, and of course was invested with all the 
powers and privileges of apostleship. Luke was his com- 
panion ; and the agreement of Luke's Gospel with those of 
the three disciples and evangelists, confirmed his claim, in the 
minds of the early Christian world, to equal inspiration with 
the rest. 

The writers of the New Testament received and gave the 
fullest evidence that, in their apostolic office, they were com- 
missioned from God. 

By the miracle at Pentecost, soon noised abroad, they were 
proclaimed to the promiscuous multitudes from many parts of 
the world, who were present at the feast, as the authorized and 
commissioned apostles of God. So that, whether they pub- 
lished the gospel, by preaching or writing, to their contempo- 
raries or to future times, all that they said was authorized of 



72 OUR BIBLE. 

God, unless we can find something which recalled or limited 
their commission. The presence of God was with them in 
their ministry. Ananias and Sapphira fell dead at the word 
of Peter ; the cripple at the temple walks ; Dorcas is brought 
back from the dead by the same word. An angel described 
one apostle to Cornelius, an inquiring Gentile, as the man 
appointed of God to teach the Gentile world the Christian 
religion. 

John in Patmos was commissioned by the Saviour in person 
to write. Paul is caught up to the third heavens. Such ac- 
knowledged ministers of God could not be permitted to record 
any thing as truth, or as direct revelation from God, for the 
use of men in all ages of the world, and be neglected or for- 
saken of God while they did it. The same necessity that the 
Holy Ghost should lead them into all truth while they were 
speaking, existed when engaged in so great a matter as com- 
posing the Bible for all coming time, when inspiration should 
cease. 

Admit, then, that what the New Testament asserts re- 
specting these men is true, and the inference is reasonable 
that in all which they did, said, and wrote, connected with the 
knowledge of Christ and of religious truth, they have, unless 
there be express notice to the contrary, the sanction of Al- 
mighty God. 

Receiving, then, the New Testament as written by divinely 
inspired men, we come to consider that 

Christ and the writers of the New Testament appeal to the 
boohs of the Old Testament as of divine authority. 

If one asked the Saviour what was the greatest command 
ment of all, Christ said, " What saith the Scripture ? How 
readest thou?" He quoted Moses, and David, and the 
Prophets ; he " came not to destroy, but to fulfil " them ; and, 
after his resurrection, he set his seal to them all by saying, 



OUR BIBLE. 73 

with reference to the sufferings, " Thus it is written, and thus 
it behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead." He 
had forborne to use his power in self-defence, saying, " How 
then shall the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be ? " 
" And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded 
unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." 

Some of the sacred writers were miraculously informed 
of future events. 

The prophecies respecting Tyre, Nineveh, and Damas- 
»us, compared with their subsequent history, are illustra- 
tions. How did Isaiah know that there was to be a mon- 
arch on the throne of Persia whose name would be Cyrus, 
and that he would restore the Jews from their captivity? 
How, without divine aid, could he describe the minute cir- 
cumstances of the Saviour's appearance, death, and burial, 
seven centuries before Christ was born, with such accuracy, 
in things improbable and seemingly contradictory, that Por- 
phyry insisted, with the early Christians, that these words 
of Isaiah must have been written by an eye witness of the 
crucifixion, and were therefore a forgery ? 

If we can establish the inspiration of a single writer of the 
Bible by showing that future events were miraculously made 
known to him, or if by any other method of proof his divine 
authority is proved, it serves for evidence that all whom he 
recognizes as inspired, are, equally with him, entitled to full 
belief as commissioned by Heaven. 

The writers of the Bible had divine aid in recording things 
which were past. 

It is not unfair to take the Bible as it now is, and with its 
present influence over the human mind, and argue, that such 
records as many of them are, would not have been allowed to 
take their place as chronicles of divine providence, and the 

7- 



74 OUB BIBLE. 

only connected history of the intercourse of God with men, 
without superintendence on the part of the Most High. But 
apart from this, how can we think that Moses would have 
given the history of the creation with such particularity, 
without divine aid ? Or how can we believe that, if he re- 
ceived all those particulars from tradition, God would have 
left him to the liabilities, to which every unassisted mind is 
exposed, of mistake ? As to the evangelists, they were unin- 
structed men, of humble life ; if a record of Christ's life, and 
a knowledge of his gospel, are important, in that proportion we 
may have assurance that the Holy Spirit would, as Christ 
said, bring to their remembrance all things which he had ut- 
tered. "We sometimes hear the writers of the Gospels referred 
to as " humble note takers and reporters." The idea of their 
making a record, at the time, of the words of Christ, is not 
consonant with the impressions which they make upon us in 
their daily life. Indeed, is it not slightly ludicrous ? They 
seem never to have had such forecastings, or to have reflected 
upon the passing events of their intercourse with Christ in so 
studied a way, as to make us feel that the taking of notes was 
any part of their occupation. Had they done so, we should, 
probably, have found them anxious to establish the authority 
of their writings by informing their readers that their reports 
of the Saviour's words were recorded at or near the moment 
when they were spoken. Instead of this, however, we find 
the Saviour promising them that the Holy Spirit would supply 
their memories with all needful information. This being so, 
we can see, from our own experience, how unlikely it is that 
such men should, of themselves, have recorded such dis- 
courses as those of the Saviour, without supernatural aid. It is 
difficult for most hearers, — sometimes for the preacher himself, 
to recollect the text, after not many hours, or a day or two, have 
passed ; and every one knows the difficulty of giving a con- 



OUR BIBLE. 75 

uected account of a discourse to which we have listened. In 
giving a friend at home some account of an address which had 
given us pleasure, we are always reminded how imperfect is 
our recollection ; we are pained at our inability to repeat 
things which, at the time, it seemed to us we could never for- 
get ; and we summarily conclude our narrative of the address 
by saying, " I wish that you could have heard it," which is 
regarded rather as a confession of our incompetency than a 
consolation, by the listener. 

One of the most difficult parts of the Bible, and one of 
peculiar importance as to perfect accuracy of thought and 
expression, is the Sermon on the Mount — that code of Chris- 
tian morals, that exposition of first principles in the new sys- 
tem by the Great Teacher. It seems to be morally certain, 
with regard to this record, that no unassisted human mind 
could have written, or would have been permitted to write, 
such a portion of the Bible. What nice, discriminations have 
we here ! what important strictures upon the hitherto received 
doctrine of the public teachers ! what vital truths relating to 
spiritual religion ! and what a lucid order and unencumbered 
statement characterize this remarkable record ! He who be- 
lieves that it could have been written, or would have been 
permitted to be written, by the publican Matthew without 
divine aid and sanction, ought not to charge believers in rev- 
elation with credulity. 

VERBAL INSPIRATION. 

* 

While it was by no means necessary that every word which 
the writers of the Bible recorded should have been suggested 

Co 

to them by the Holy Spirit, nor that He should inform them, 
for example, how far Bethany was from Jerusalem, yet it is 
reasonable to suppose that he superintended all which they 



76 OUR BIBLE. 

wrote, so that they should be correct in their expressions and 
statements. This is essential to a professed revelation from 
God ; for while the natural faculties of men may be employed 
in writing it, we must feel that God superintended them, so 
that they might not err. For the same reason that we believe 
that God gave a revelation, we must believe that he superin- 
tended and guided those who wrote, so that it should be his 
approved and sanctioned word. 

If it be asked, then, whether we believe that all the words 
of Scripture were inspired, that is, divinely suggested, the 
answer is, Of the direct suggestion of many of them there can 
be no question ; for the writers themselves report what they 
heard the Almighty speak. As it regards other cases, words 
are essential to thought ; we cannot have a definite thought 
without the help of silent words. The sacred writers could 
not, in the nature of things, have received even a direct, silent 
communication from God without the suggestion of words. 
"When a symbol is suggested to awaken thought, for example, 
figs to Jeremiah, or the sheet filled with animals to Peter, the 
thoughts suggested by them must clothe themselves in words 
before they could become intelligible. When the prophet or 
apostle came to utter or record these thoughts, he would be 
most likely to use the words which had vividly shone into his 
mind at the moment of inspiration. It seems reasonable to 
suppose that he would speak as he was moved by the Holy 
Ghost. 

But it is said, there are some remarks in Job, for example, 
and in Ecclesiastes, which, by themselves, are not true. Were 
they inspired ? — They are uttered in order to be answered ; 
or to make out a drift of discourse which shall illustrate some- 
thing, and help on the great purpose of the writer. A 
preacher who should take some of these words for texts, 
separated from this drift and design, would err ; and many do. 



OUR BIBLE. 77 

We must not take some of Satan's words concerning Job, and try- 
to deduce a truth from them ; yet we may take such passages in 
their connection, for texts ; and in so doing we shall fall in 
with the plan of inspiration. 

But it is said, there are many statements in the Bible which 
any man could write as well as one who was inspired ; for in- 
stance, that " Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews," that " Solo- 
mon built him a house," that Emmaus ' was about threescore 
furlongs from Jerusalem.' 

But surely there is nothing credulous or irrational in sup- 
posing that the Holy Spirit watched over the sacred writers 
to see that they did not err in their incidental statements. 
The smaller and the more seemingly unimportant the state- 
ment, the more necessary, on some accounts, that it should be 
correct. In cross-questioning a witness, one catches at the 
incidental expressions, and from them sometimes constructs 
his most powerful arguments. The undesigned coincidences 
between the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, are made, 
by Dr. Paley, a strong argument in favor of the credibility of 
the New Testament. Suppose that the sacred writers had 
made mistakes in geography, and infidels could prove it ? 
We see from the discussions connected with the geology of 
Scripture, and with the errors in dates, distances, and numbers 
which have crept into the Bible, what use would have been 
made of errors which could be proved upon the writers. It 
is true they could tell, without inspiration, whether Derbe and 
Lystra were near together ; but suppose that the historian, in- 
stead of saying Lystra. had said Iconium ; it would have dis- 
paraged his credibility in important things. It is reasonable 
to believe in a superintending divine influence extending to 
those narratives and observations which needed no suggestive 
inspiration, but which it was important should be correct. 
— Some alleged errors of statement by men while confessedly 
under inspiration will be noticed hereafter. 

7* 



78 OUR BIBLE 



HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS OF INSPIRATION. 

Here we may notice, once for all, those obviously human 
characteristics of the Bible which lead some to question its in- 
spiration. Paul leaves his "cloak" at Ephesus, and his 
"parchments," and he sends directions with regard to them 
in immediate connection with what are claimed to be divinely 
inspired precepts. Is that verse relating to the cloak and 
parchments inspired ? we often hear it asked. If not, per- 
haps some other verses are not inspired. How shall we 
discriminate ? 

We will add to this a few more cases, and consider them 
together : — 

"Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen 
furlongs off." 

" And there were set there six water pots of stone, contain- 
ing two or three firkins apiece." 

" The number of the names together were about an hundred 
and twenty." 

Were these verses inspired ? If so, why did not the in- 
spired writer give us the exact measurements and numbers in 
these cases ? He knew, of course, how many names more or 
less than a hundred and twenty, were assembled ; and so in 
the other instances of ambiguous statement. 

The principle of explanation is this : Human modes of think- 
ing and speaking are used by the Holy Spirit in the compo- 
sition of the Bible. Angelic forms of expression would have 
been out of place. Of the many different writers of the Bible, 
no two are alike in style ; the wisdom of God has adapted 
himself to the tastes and feelings of men in causing those by 
whom he speaks, to think and speak in the way peculiar to 
their own genius and habits. As the same wind has different 
voices among the leaves of oaks and in the pines, so the breath 



OUR BIBLE. 79 

of the Almighty has different tones in the hearts aud lips of 
inspired men. The style in the book of Ruth, and in Nahum, 
varies with the subject. John is different in his modes of 
thought from Luke ; there is a diversity of operations, but the 
same spirit. The human qualities of the writers are never 
confounded by the highest measure of inspiration, but, on the 
contrary, are intensified. Then, again, the weaknesses, and 
the social feelings, the private friendships, and the minute 
affairs of the writer are allowed to infiltrate themselves with 
the flow of inspired thought and feeling, all serving to give 
the book, as it were, incarnation ; " the word is made flesh 
and dwells among us." As the Saviour's hunger and weari- 
ness, limited knowledge, and prayers, are as essential to his 
effect upon us as the proofs of his Godhead, so when we 
read that Paul had no rest in his spirit because he found not 
Titus his brother at a certain place, notwithstanding " a wide 
door, and an effectual," of usefulness was opened to him, and 
when a score of verses in an inspired book are occupied 
wholly with messages of salutation to Christian friends, and 
the inspired man is found forgetting, perhaps, his parch- 
ments, and is compelled to leave the burdensome cloak be- 
hind him, and then speaks of it in his inspired letter ; and 
when he cannot, by any effort, remember how many people 
he had baptized in a certain place, — we think that we may 
seem deficient in some of the qualifications necessary even in 
judging works of art, if we take exception to these shadings, 
this obscuring, which give the otherwise intense supernatural 
light a tone suited to the best effect. The fairest cheek on 
canvas, viewed from a wrong point, looks inconsistent ; the 
proper angle of vision reduces the crossed lines to harmony. 
No work of art, indeed no work of God himself, could stand 
before the rules of criticism which are sometimes applied to 
the Bible. The true theory of inspiration is in harmony with 



80 OUR BIBLE. 

the true theory of every thing else in which God and man ares 
co-workers ; for since man is not a Memnon s statue, with its 
films of mica for the wind to breathe in, but is a free agent, 
whose freedom is never destroyed by the divine agency, we 
must expect to see human qualities exhibit themselves even 
amidst the highest inspiration. Old Jacob, on his dying bed, 
rapt in vision, pauses, leans back, and ejaculates, "I have 
waited for thy salvation, O Lord." Come, now, let us feel for 
the pulses of human emotion, and of the divine afflatus, while 
he is thus resting with a long-drawn sigh ; let us accurately 
determine at what second, by the watch, inspiration ceased, 
and the merely human feeling coursed through him ; for, if 
we cannot thus, or by some spirometer, or stethescope, distin- 
guish between the breath of the Almighty and the breath of 
Jacob, how can we tell what part of the forty-ninth chapter of 
Genesis is inspired ? — And yet, what harm will happen in 
such a case ? Let the devout aspiration of the dying saint 
prove to have been such as any uninspired man could have 
expressed, — is there error in it ? Is it not in such contiguity 
with supernatural vision that it will be safe to regard it as 
permitted, superintended ? and even if there be no practical 
use in it, as there surely is to every dying Christian who may 
be expiring in old age, like Jacob, we may as well object that 
the grains of earth which come to us upon the roots of a plant, 
are inconsistent with the perfection of the flower. Those 
grains of earth are a witness for the soil in which the plant 
grew. 

INFIRMITIES OF THE SACRED WRITERS. 

The plenary inspiration of the Bible does not make it 
necessary that Paul and Barnabas should not have disj uted 
and separated ; or that Peter should not have used dissimu- 
lation and be blamed by Paul. Inspiration in writing, the 



ODE BIBLE, 81 

inspired directions which they gave, the inspired truths 
which they taught, the divine miracle which they performed, 
do not cover all their thoughts, words, and actions, at all times 
with sanctity ; nor make them omniscient. Paul did not know 
the High Priest before whom he was speaking. These fallible 
men were endued, upon occasion, with a divine authority ; 
all which they did and said at such times is the word and the 
act of the Almighty. 

But there are alleged errors of inspired men which are 
capable of solution. An instance is in the speech of Stephen, 
who, while full of the Holy Ghost, speaks of the burying place 
of the patriarchs, and the number of Jacob's family in Egypt, 
in a way to occasion trouble to many. These, however, can be 
explained. So with regard to the allegation that the apostles 
believed and taught that the end of the world was nigh. 

Paul is careful to tell us at times, that he is not speaking 
under divine direction, but is giving his private advice. We 
are left to infer, therefore, that at other times when he speaks 
to us, and we are not otherwise notified, it is by divine inspi- 
ration. 

It is interesting to reflect that the Bible has no one charac- 
ter, real or fictitious, which it exalts, as writers of poems and 
certain histories do their heroes or worthies. We find in 
Scripture no Cyrus, with his Xenophon, no Achilles, with his 
Homer, no :ZEneas, with his Virgil to laud his virtues and con- 
ceal or apologize for his mistakes and follies. It is wonderful 
in what contrast to all this is the manner in which the Bible por- 
trays its powerful characters. Abraham, and Lot, and Jacob, 
and Moses, and David, and Solomon, and some of the best of the 
kings, are set forth to us without the least concealment ; no 
effort is made to palliate their faults by offering a sympathizing 
word as to the strength of temptation, or the frailty of our 
common nature. Transparent honesty marks every delinea- 



82 OUR BIBLE. 

tion of a life and character. It is not presumption to say that 
none but God would have made such a book, — the God who 
requireth " truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden parts, 
will make us to know wisdom." But now, in return for all 
this candor, — if we may use the term in such connection, — all 
this divine simplicity, this perfect truthfulness, many speak 
of the good men of the Bible in ways which do not show that 
they appreciate the manner of the Bible in this particular, or 
that they have ever seen each the plague of his own heart. 
They wonder at Abraham ; they call Jacob by opprobrious 
names ; David is a perpetual subject of their irony ; they can- 
not speak of Solomon without lifting a hand to conceal a 
smile on their half-averted faces. It is not demanded of us 
that we approve or excuse the sins of these good men. But, 
it is becoming in us to remember, that it was from amid the 
ruins of fallen human nature that God was obliged to select 
his saints ; that we know the worst of these men ; that their 
repentance and confession, in some instances, are known to be 
proportioned to their fall ; that the mercy of God, which we all 
so much need, is illustrated in commending and loving those 
who had been guilty of such departures from him ; and that 
the Saviour of the world recognized them as good men. If, 
instead of forgiving them, and calling them, still, men after 
his own heart, God had cast them off, he would have been 
reproached for severity, as now for leniency. True, some are 
not satisfied by this last consideration, but they rather impeach 
Christianity and its Founder for not complying with their own 
standard of morality. It is enough, however, for the disciple, 
in his moral sense, to be as his Master, and the servant to be 
as his Lord. 

It will not be amiss for certain writers who take special 
pleasure, we fear, in holding forth the sins of good men, to 
ponder the following words : " Some men's sins are open 



OUR BIBLE. 83 

beforehand, going before to judgment; and so tic they fol- 
low after." 



DAVID S IMPRECATIONS. 



But was David inspired when he uttered his impreca- 
tions against his enemies ? — If those imprecations, properly 
understood, were contrary to the mind and will of God, 
" David's Lord " would not have given his sanction, as he 
did, to the Psalms as a whole. He who wrote those impre- 
cations would not have been permitted to say, " The Spirit 
of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue," 
without a cautioning word from him who so explicitly corrected 
or qualified things which were " said by them of old time." 
— As to David's imprecations, it may be remarked in passing, 
they are none of them, nor all of them together, more severe 
than the imprecation of Paul upon Alexander the copper- 
smith, for doing him much evil. In his one brief sentence, 
he expresses all that David meant and said, with the same 
motive, and in the same spirit. 

But was the writer of the one hundred and thirty-seventh 
Psalm, " By the rivers of Babylon," inspired, when he placed 
those words on record : " Happy shall he be that taketh and 
dasheth thy little ones against the stones " ? 

God had purposed to destroy Babylon, root and branch. 
Let us read the preceding verse : " daughter of Babylon, 
who art to be destroyed, happy shall he be that rewardeth 
thee as thou hast served us." They had seen their own little 
ones dashed against the stones by the hand of Babylon. 
When men see their wives and children destroyed before their 
eyes by savages, and these husbands and fathers, afterwards, in 
war, take the savages captive in their wigwams, and crush out 
every life, in young and old, they are not justly chargeable 
with immorality, nor is the present of a sword to the leader 



84 OUR BIBLE. 

of the destroying band, as a token of gratitude, generally 
deemed inconsistent with morality. There are exigencies in 
human affairs, there are agonies of experience, there are St. 
Bartholomew's days, there are Piedmontese scenes, when all 
the imprecations in the word of God are necessary, and just, 
and true. 

DISCREPANCIES OF SCRIPTURE. 

It is said, There are discrepancies between the sacred his- 
torians in their accounts of the same events. For example, 
one says, " the thieves which were crucified with him cast the 
same in his teeth." Another says, that one of the thieves 
was penitent, and rebuked his fellow for upbraiding Jesus. 
The argument is, One of the evangelists, therefore, did not 
speak correctly ; at least there is a degree of carelessness in 
his statement, which is inconsistent with his being inspired. 

This objection, so far from disproving the inspiration of the 
evangelist, is a striking illustration of the truth that inspira- 
tion follows the common laws of human speech and of thought. 
Suppose that you were giving an account of the ill treatment 
which a good man received from a mob. After describing the 
indignities which he suffered, you say that he was hurried 
away to jail. As he passed through an entry of the prison, 
where two convicts of the lower class were confined, the pris- 
oners hissed at him. Now, you are brought before a court of 
justice to testify on this point. Did one or both of those pris- 
oners hiss at this man ? Your answer might be, My object 
in the narrative was to show that this good man was hissed 
even in prison ; I was not giving evidence for or against the 
prisoners, but was describing the humiliation of my friend. 
It was that, and not the number of those who were concerned 
in the act, which made its impression upon me, and which I 
sought .o convey. 



OUR BIBLE. 85 

No one would say that you had been incorrect in your 
statement, even should it appear by the confession of one of 
the coi.victs that he alone insulted your friend. 1 

When we read in the newspaper three or four different 
accounts of the same thing, all varying in some particulars, 
one giving more details of one part of the story, another 
passing over that part-with a general statement, and dwelling 
more upon another part, we feel that this is natural. Four 
accounts of the same transaction about which there was con- 
troversy, all drawn up with most minute resemblance, would 
excite the suspicion that the writers had been together, and 
had agreed in their statements. Moreover, of what value 
would such mere duplicate writings be ? But let four men, 
whose reputations, and whose all, are concerned in the trans- 
action, differ in certain things, while they agree in the essen- 
tials of the story, and we naturally say, If these men were 
rogues, they would have used more carefulness ; now, their 
discrepancies show that they are so much absorbed in the truth 
and importance of the things narrated, that they think little 
of the variations in their stories. Liars are ingeniously accu- 
rate in little things when they compound a lie ; honest men 
can afford to differ in the circumstantial parts of a story. 
When God employed men to give us the history of the gospel, 
he might have made them coincide in the minutest things. 
B jt where, then, would have been the necessity or use of more 
accounts than one ? We think that there is divine wisdom in 
permitting the evangelists to differ in certain unessential things, 
and at the same time superintending and guiding them so that 
they should not differ in any measure or kind, whereby their 
credibility could be impaired. 

1 This particular discrepancy respecting the two thieves may be satisfac- 
torily disposed cf by supposing, with some, that the penitent thief, at first, 
aiso reviled Christ. 



86 OUR BIBLE. 

It is known that the Books of Chronicles differ, in some im- 
portant respects, from the books of the Kings. The question 
is, Which are true ? and, How can both claim to be inspired ? 
Rationalists have made some of their deadliest attacks here. 
— The Chronicles were not written for the same purpose as 
the Books of the Kings. The " Kings " are political history ; 
Chronicles are ecclesiastical : the Kings are historical in their 
design ; the Chronicles didactic, and were written after the 
captivity, are brought down to the end of the exile, were 
compiled after the time of Jeremiah. The object of the 
writer seems to be to inform the Hebrews, returning from 
captivity, respecting their pedigree, and to clear the line of 
descent in which the Messiah was to be born ; hence the 
family of David is particularly regarded. Directions are 
given as to the restoration of divine worship ; the priests and 
Levites are furnished with the most careful genealogies of 
their line ; the ordering of their appointments under David 
and Solomon is specially given. In doing these things, it was 
not to the writer's purpose that full histories of all the kings 
should occupy his pages ; he had accomplished his most 
worthy purposes, as here described, and he sought to confirm 
the piety of his countrymen, after their banishment, by dwell- 
ing upon the examples and the prosperity of good kings, and 
the sins of the nation which led to its downfall. But because 
the stream of history in those books does not run into the 
same creeks and bays with that in the Kings, the writer is, 
by some, impugned, and his books are set at nought. — But 
there are errors, in names and numbers, which cannot be 
explained. Copyists have here, no doubt, left proofs behind 
them that they were not inspired. These errors do not at 
all invalidate the credibility of the writer; for, in the most 
palpable case of all, in which a certain king appears, by com- 
mutation, to be two years older than his father, we cannot 



OUE BIBLE. 87 

impute so foolish a thing to the writer ; we see that the record 
has not been kept, by a miracle, from certain numerical 
errors. 

ALLEGED IMMODESTY IN THE SCRIPTURES. 

There are parts of the Bible which we would not choose to 
read before others, or to hear read. They relate to things 
which, it is commanded, should " not be named among you, as 
becometh saints." These things, however, enter deeply into 
human character and conduct ; and a revelation to man, as he 
is, which should omit to deal plainly and faithfully with regard 
to these things, would be deemed deficient. As to their dispar- 
agement of the Bible as the word of God, a good and suffi- 
cient answer was given by a late distinguished and excellent 
civilian and Christian,* who mentioned it himself to the writer. 
Falling into religious conversation with the driver of a vehicle 
in which he was riding, the man objected to the Bible as con- 
taining things which he would be ashamed to read before his 
family ; therefore he argued that God could not be its author. 

Our friend asked him if he would think it proper, and would 
be willing, to uncover his feet and sit with them naked before 
his family. The man promptly said, No. " Then," said our 
friend, " God did not make your feet ! " 

The suitableness of a thing to be read or rehearsed on any 
and every occasion, is not the test of its truth and propriety, 
nor of its divine origin. Other uses, of vast importance, may 
be effected by it. Some of our laws cannot be read in a family. 

Solomon's Song is the subject of great animadversion with 
many, of great difficulty with others, and indeed there are 
few who are not, in some way, perplexed by it. Several 

* Hon. Simon Greenleaf, late Professor of Law, Harvard University. 



88 . OUR BIBLE. 

things are to be considered. It was in the canon at the time 
of Christ. Many things in the original are expressed in a 
less literal manner than in our translation. Mixed society 
did not and does not prevail in Oriental countries. Eastern 
nations have not the same modes and standards of taste and 
manners with people in other latitudes ; and there is a large 
part of the world, in those latitudes, who are yet to receive 
the Bible, and who will not adopt our modes of thought in all 
respects. In Lane's " Modern Egypt," we have, perhaps, the 
best explanation of this song. He himself tells us that in lis- 
tening to the dervishes, as they sang their religious odes for 
purely spiritual purposes, though couched in the language of 
love, he was persuaded of the propriety and the divine origin 
of Solomon's Song, used for the purposes for which it was 
designed. The most approved explanation of it is, that it is 
intended to express the love of the soul for God ; and if some 
prefer to say, of the soul for its Redeemer, they are war- 
ranted in thus giving it an application to him who is the al- 
pha and omega of Scripture. But after all is said, this is 
true, — and the remark will apply to other parts of the Bible 
besides this, — that the different portions of the Bible are not 
all of them of equal use for edification, nor suitable to be 
read by all persons at all times. This is but the expression 
of every reader's experience, and of his history as a reader 
of the Scriptures. — But when we read the wholesale con- 
demnation of Solomon's Song by some writers, we may profit- 
ably consider that there is more than one kind of modesty ; 
and that, in professing much of one sort, we should be careful 
not to make ourselves liable to the imputation of boldness and 
effrontery. For, when we repudiate that which Christ did not 
condemn, and forget that there are other latitudes, not only of 
the earth's surface, but of Christian experience, than those in 
which we dwell, we need to be reminded that there is such a 
thing as prudery as well as virtue. 



OUR BIBLE. 89 

There must be mysteries not only in the Bible, but in its 
preparation, if God is the author of it. Some things which 
the Bible clearly exhibits as peculiar to the manner of its 
composition, we cannot wholly account for to the satisfaction 
of one another. We should all have arranged some things 
differently, or should have omitted some things, or have said 
less, or more, about them. He who finds and acknowledges 
no difficulties in the subject of inspiration, has something yet 
to learn. Far better is it to say to certain questions, " I do 
not know," than to ask those questions with a contemptuous 
feeling, and to hear such an answer with an air of triumph. 

Some tell us that if we will abandon the doctrine of plen- 
ary inspiration, all the difficulties on the subject of inspira- 
tion will vanish. They are mistaken, and in the same ways 
as when they tell us that if we will give up the doctrine of 
the Trinity, we shall have no difficulty with the person and 
character of Christ. But the doctrine of two natures in 
Christ explains to us all the facts relating to him, which, 
otherwise, are greater mysteries even than the Trinity. So 
it is with plenary inspiration. The highest ground here is 
the easiest to maintain. 



DIFFICULTIES OF DEISM. INTERNAL EVIDENCE. 

Here is a book composed of parts written at various times 
during a period of several thousand years, by about forty 
men, of every variety of tastes, talents, and occupations. 
Yet the book is one in its purpose and influence, all parts 
of it conspiring to confirm, and to fulfil, one the other. Was 
there no guiding, superintending influence from on high di- 
recting the composition of these books? Did men without 
any more divine aid than Cicero, or Franklin, throw out these 
wiitings so connected in their design that they could be 
8* 



90 OUR BIBLE. 

gathered into one volume without discordance in their state- 
ments, or discrepancies in their moral and religious opinions ? 
Then we might believe that the different parts of an organ 
were made at different times during several thousand years, 
by men who had no design to make a complete instrument ; 
but one made a pipe, another a stop, the other a key, at ran- 
dom ; but the keys, pipes, and stops, being brought together, 
were found to be exactly fitted to each other — the keys all 
level, the pipes proportioned and voiced, the stops with their 
couplings ; and the first time the instrument was played, it 
was in tune, and has been so ever since. 

Here is a book written, in part, by herdsmen and fishermen, 
the parts which they wrote, as well as the others written by 
kings and prophets, having a style which belongs to no other 
writings. There is something in the language of the Bible 
which affects every mind unlike any other language. Let a 
secular orator quote a passage of Scripture : what force it 
gives to speech ! and how entirely different is its effect, in 
every thing, from his own style, even though he be the most 
eloquent of men ! No wonder that the human mind, weighing 
and pondering the words of different writings claiming to be 
inspired, sifted out those which were uninspired, and gave, at 
last, its irrevocable suffrage to those which we hold to be of 
divine origin. When we compare the books of the Apocry- 
pha 1 and the Canon, we are not surprised that the common 
mind retired from such pastures and streams as the " Wisdom 
of Solomon " and " Ecclesiasticus," to the Book of Proverbs 
and Ecclesiastes. Indeed, the only way in which it can be 
explained that some uninspired writings had power so long to 
maintain a place so near the sacred Scriptures is, that the 
common people, who have always been the true umpires in 

1 Apocrapha — things not made public, or sanctioned ; — from a Greek 
word, to conceal. 



OUR BIBLE. 91 

things pertaining to the human conscience and heart, had not 
had familiar possession and use of the religious scriptures. 
Moses had, in every synagogue, them that read him on the 
Sabbath days ; but the press and Bible societies had not 
given the records of religion to every one who would reach 
forth a hand to take them. Hence it required longer time 
for writings which, though of good moral effect, were not 
inspired, to find their relative places in the judgments of man- 
kind. But there must have been, there must be, an invincible 
conviction in the minds of men with regard to a supernatural- 
ness in certain writings, that other writings, equally good in 
their purpose, and as unexceptionable in their effect, were 
entirely set aside, and became discredited. This is a strong 
proof of the supernatural inspiration of the Scriptures. For 
if, as some say, every thing wise and good is inspired, we 
cannot account for it that large passages by the Son of Sirach, 
for example, should have been rejected by the concurrent 
feelings of believers, not long after they were written, as not 
worthy to be ranked with other writings whose authors were, 
nevertheless, men of like passions with their contemporaries. 
If the intrinsic goodness and truthfulness of a writing consti- 
tutes inspiration, we cannot account for the place which the 
sacred Scriptures have taken and held, invested as they are 
with a sanctity which no Paradise Lost, or Pilgrim's Progress, 
or Olney Hymns of Cowper and Newton, have been able to 
acquire. 

JEALOUSY OF OUR REVERENCE FOR THE BIBLE. 

But there are those who are jealous of this sanctity ; and 
they regard it and speak of it as an unenlightened superstition. 
There is too much blind reverence, they think and say, for 
the Bible. It is undoubtedly the best of books ; but they 
pray us to be more discriminating in speaking of it, and not 



92 OUR BIBLE. 

to let our feelings towards it approach so near to worship, that 
we cannot endure to have it spoken of as sharing in the 
infirmities of all things of human mould. They say, We truly 
wish that the Bible were an infallible guide, it would be so 
comforting and safe to feel that every thing in its pages is 
infallibly right and true. But alas ! the discrepancies of the 
writers, and the errors of copyists, the mutilation of texts, and 
" the hundred thousand various readings," make it appear no 
less than presumption, if not effrontery, or, to say the least, it 
is fanaticism, to claim infallibility for such a book. 

We reply to them that every thing which is essential to 
the knowledge of God and salvation is essentially the same in 
the earliest and the latest copies of the Scriptures. Errors 
of translation, and mistakes of copyists, and it may be, here 
and there, fraud, have marred the literal accuracy of the 
original in places some of which are greatly disputed, and 
others are generally acknowledged to be wrong. 

We are asked, Is all which is within the covers of the 
Bible inspired ? Is that book, in the sense of every thing 
which it contains, " the word of God " ? They who ask such 
questions are, some of them, well acquainted with the discus- 
sions on the subject of " Personal Identity." How far may a 
house be altered, even allowing it is for the worse, and yet be 
the same house ? or, May a vehicle be honestly sold as the 
manufacture of a distinguished builder, when a new and 
crooked spoke has been inserted by another hand, or a bolt 
with a head not uniform with the other bolts ; or a lost curtain 
has been replaced by another maker ? 

We would none of us feel unwilling to buy a " Guido " ©r 
a " Titian," for knowing that a mutilated finger has been 
painted with a modern brush. But, Is that a real " Titian," 
one may say, with its mutilation ? Here is the written 
evidence ; the authenticity is capable of demonstration ; the 



OUR BIBLE. 93 

changes in the piece are all manifest to a practised eye ; the 
picture, with all its injuries, is a " Titian ; " and, with far less 
essential damage than such a picture is supposed to have 
received, the Bible is, in the same sense, the same identical 
" word of God " as it was from the beginning. We maintain 
this on those principles of personal identity which are every 
where received and acted upon by mankind. Assertions to 
the contrary have been abundantly refuted by biblical critics, 
who have patiently taken up and examined each case in which 
the text of Scripture has received injury. Let no believer in 
the plenary inspiration of the Bible, especially let not young 
men, (who are prone to regard such appeals,) be afraid, when 
the inspiration of the Bible is assailed by those who make 
claims to freedom from credulity. In examining their writ- 
ings during the preparation of these pages, the impression has 
been deepened that none are less free from credulity than they. 
While they promise you liberty, they themselves show that 
there is a fanaticism of unbelief, which is not equalled by any 
alleged superstitions which they so much dread. 

We have reason to complain of some who profess to have a 
high regard for the Bible, and yet endeavor to lessen the pop- 
ular reverence for the book. We look upon them as the very 
worst enemies which the Bible has ever had to encounter ; for 
they make great protestations of regard for the Bible, only 
they ' would not have the people receive it with such awe and 
idolatrous reverence.' But they well know that the line be- 
tween faith and superstition in every human mind is movable, 
and it is impossible to fix it ; that reverence lies hard on the 
border of enthusiasm, and no philosopher, certainly no philan- 
thropist, will venture to prescribe the demarcation. Sometimes 
we feel towards such men as a child would feel towards an 
apparently friendly man who should say, " I would not have 
you abate any thing of your reasonable love for your father's 



94 OUR BIBLE. 

or mother's memory; but be truthful and discriminating in 
your judgment of their character: you may not be aware 
that some who knew them best perceived that they had their 
failings ; indeed, in an acquaintance with them of fifty years, 
several candid persons, who really loved and respected your 
parents, saw evidences of human imperfection in them, and were 
led to say, Are these persons really such saints as their pious 
children regard them ? Are they worthy of all this indiscrim- 
inate — ? " But a child's agony would by this time be more 
than his civility could control, and this imitator of him, who, 
in paradise, was found, " like a toad," at the ear of Eve, and 
poisoned her dreams, would, in some cases, receive, and in 
all cases would richly merit, summary leave to depart. The 
illustration will not hold good in every particular ; for we do 
not admit that the Bible is intrinsically imperfect, — in the 
same sense that the best of men are imperfect. " I know," 
says the child to himself, " that my parents walked be- 
fore me in uprightness ; they were honest, virtuous, sincere, 
without guile, generous, unsuspicious ; but withal, they met 
with tribulation, and injuries from open foes and pretended 
friends ; without a constant miracle, they could not have 
passed through such things, in such a world as this, without 
contracting some injury." 

So we feel towards the word of God. In such a world as 
this, and with such fearful treatment as it has met with, noth- 
ing but a standing miracle could have preserved the Bible 
from certain injuries. It is an interesting question, How 
far shall He who does not interpose to prevent fire from burn- 
ing the flesh of a good man, work a constant miracle, to keep 
a book, transcribed, translated, so many times as the Bible has 
been, from mutilation ? It is injured enough to vindicate the 
one great impartial law of providence towards the evil and 
the good; it is not injured so as to affect, in the least degree, 



OUR BIBLE. 95 

its credibility. The injuries which it has received are far 
less, in every sense, than some would make us feel them to be. 
As it regards their spiritual effect, they are no more than the 
tarnish which may have happened to the ark of the covenant, 
the mildew which gathered upon the folded curtains of the 
tabernacle in its removal from place to place, or the dust and 
cobwebs which may have eluded the Levite's eye and care on 
the wings of the cherubim. Take the Bible to a sick bed, 
to a funeral, to the cell of the condemned ; open it in the fam- 
ily, in the place of secret prayer, at an ordination, a social 
gathering, or where two or three are met in Christ's name ; 
and what listener or reader will be made to feel that it is 
any less the word of God, to the conscience and heart, than 
though the original manuscripts of the Bible were produced ? 
And yet there are, by actual count, as Kinnicott and De Rossi 
tell us, more than eight hundted thousand various readings 
as to the Hebrew consonants, in different copies of the He- 
brew Scriptures. But they are generally of no more impor- 
tance than our different spellings of Mohammed, Mahomet, and 
MuhameL There is not a doctrine, nor a moral precept, in the 
Bible which is in the least obscured by any of the casualties 
to which the text of Scripture has been subjected ; no, not 
one. Though numerical mistakes occur which it is hard to 
explain, and dates are confused, and names appear, in geneal- 
ogies, in seeming contradiction, to statements elsewhere, yet 
the moral impression of every narrative is uninjured. We 
might challenge the host of ancient and modern unbeliev- 
ers to produce a single instance in refutation of this statement. 
All the loud warnings, therefore, against corruptions of Scrip- 
ture, and all the sleek words of seeming candor, praying for 
more discrimination in our judgments of the word of God, 
are not warranted by any real harm which the sacred text has 
suffered. 



96 OUR BIBLE. 

It deserves to be said to all who seek to impair the enthusi- 
astic love of the people for their Bible, that they are the worst 
enemies of mankind. Who are more so ? The men who 
corrupt the word of God by their false doctrines and inven- 
tions, may still leave that word to have its proper effect upon 
the conscience and heart. But he who by any means weak- 
ens the authority of the Bible, as a supernatural revelation, 
takes a risk for which no reflecting person would be the un- 
derwriter for the wealth of the world. 

What possible good these men really believe that they ac- 
complish, it is hard to say. It may truly be said of them to 
the humble, devout believers, " There be some that trouble 
you." They love to arrest a cup of cold water on its way to 
a thirsty soul, and compel us to look through their microscope, 
and see the animalcules which seem to make the element alive. 
" And now," they seem to say, " you will drink with some 
scientific knowledge of what you are about to swallow. 
Knowledge is never hurtful ; ignorance is not the mother 
of devotion ; always remember when you drink that there is 
no such thing as pure water." If we remonstrate at this, 
then we are " bigoted," " illiberal," " enemies of science ; " 
we " cherish ignorance," we " foster a blind attachment to old 
things." 

Let us suppose that some speculative, experimenting, or 
malevolent, or trifling 'hand could disturb that mysterious 
power of magnetism which resides in the north. And now 
the needles of all the compasses are false guides ; every mari- 
ner in the dark, watching, by the light in his binnacle, the 
little trembling finger ordained by a benevolent God to guide 
him over the deep, sails wrong ; and in the morning Old Kin- 
sale is heaped up with wrecks ; the Bahama reefs have 
caught the keels of a fleet ; many find themselves in strange 
ports, far off from their destined places ; the explorers, the 



OUR BIBLE. 97 

surveyors on land, are all at fault ; a vane cannot be set, nor 
a sundial ; property, happiness, life, beyond computation, are 
sacrificed. All this would be less than the mischief of dis- 
turbing the power which the Bible has upon the hearts and 
minds of our fellow-men. A man had better be in his grave 
than to make men lose their implicit faith in the Bible. Call 
it " scholarship," " literary acumen," " discrimination," " hatred 
of superstition," or by any other plausible name, — it is, in ef- 
fect, cruelty ; it carries desolation to the interests of men farther 
than any other form of infidelity. Every periodical, or col- 
umn of a newspaper, or pamphlet, which professes to cast an 
honest doubt upon the inspiration of the Bible, ought to be 
compassed round with heavy black lines ; the writer or speak- 
er should bow down heavily, as one that mourneth for his 
mother ; his words should falter on his tongue ; his lips should 
quiver ; " I am sent to thee with heavy tidings," should be his 
preface and his peroration. Instead of this, what do we find ? 
Sarcasm, ridicule, insinuations, a titter, pity, a sneer, wonder, 
amazement, at the intrepidity, or weakness, of those who will 
persist to regard the Bible, the whole Bible, as the word of 
God. This is the shape in which deism is now showing itself 
among us. The battle was formerly on questions of interpre- 
tation. Every proof text of every great doctrine of the Bi- 
ble, especially such as relate to the deity of Christ, has been 
disputed. Some of them, and the attempts to destroy them, 
make one think of noble hawsers and chain cables bearing 
the marks of teeth which nibbled where it was hard to bite. 
But the supreme deity of Christ, and its kindred doctrines, 
maintain their hold upon the understanding and heart ; and 
the most effectual way to impair them would, certainly, now be, 
to cast suspicion on the book which seems to teach these doc- 
trines. Give us liberty to regard the Bible as imperfectly in- 
spired, and our own tastes and our various disposition to believe 
9 



98 OUR BIBLE. 

will dictate what doctrines, or precepts, we shall regard as of 
divine authority. And thus, every man will make his own 
Bible, as every heathen has his own little god. If one ever 
hears a religious teacher throw doubts upon the supreme au- 
thority of the Scriptures, or detract from their plenary inspira- 
tion, he should give no sleep to his eyes or slumber to his 
eyelids, but deliver himself as a roe from the hunter, and as 
a bird from the hand of the fowler. Once admit thai, the 
Bible is any thing less than " the word of God," and the voice 
of God no longer speaks to the conscience authoritatively 
from its pages ; but men, fallible while they wrote, have 
merely given us their best recollections and impressions. 

CONFESSION AND TESTIMONY OF THE JEWS TO THEIR BIBLE. 

One of the most remarkable things in regard to the Bible 
is this — that while the Old Testament is to a great extent a 
record of the sins and follies of the Jewish nation, setting 
them forth in the most odious light, as a nation of fickle, un- 
grateful rebels against God, the Jews regard the Old Testa- 
ment with little less than absolute worship. Here is a singu- 
lar spectacle — a whole nation binding to them, and wearing, as 
a diadem of glory, a book which exposes their sins and chas- 
tisements before all nations. Were they a humble, pious 
nation, we might account for this from their humility and 
godly sorrow. But they are proud and scornful towards all 
other people. Yet they had kept the Old Testament so pure 
that Christ did not reprove them for making the least altera- 
tion in their sacred canon, nor in the text of Scripture ; and 
to this day their Bible is their glory and joy. It is not usual 
for men to prize so highly the indictments which are found 
against them. If the Bible were ordinary histories by un- 
inspired men, like the histories by Herodotus or Josephus, it 



OUR BIBLE. 99 

could not have acquired such sanctity, and have kept it for so 
many centuries. He who says that the Bible was written, like 
all other books, with no supernatural aid and guidance, or 
superintendence, does not account for this prodigy. 

The Pharisees were the Romanists, and the Sadducees 
were the Protestants, of their day, with regard to the Scrip- 
tures. The two sects originated soon after the return from 
the captivity, the Pharisees being in favor of traditionary ad- 
ditions to the word of God, and the Sadducees being their 
opponents, not chiefly on the question of " angel or spirit," but, 
on the subject of the corruptions of Scripture. We have in 
this a strong warrant for believing that the canon and text of 
Scripture were watched with jealous care. 



In the original, this verse reads as follows : " All Scripture 
given by inspiration of God, and profitable for doctrine, for 
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness ; that 
the man of God may be thoroughly furnished to every good 
work." 

The word, is, in the first two lines, is not in the Greek. The 
reader of the English Bible can readily find many a case 
where the word, is, is Italicized, showing that it does not occur 
in the original, but is supplied by the translator. Now, the 
question arises, whether it is to be supplied in this case ; if 
not, how shall the verse be rendered ? 

Some eminent scholars render it thus: "All Scripture 
given by inspiration of God is also profitable," &c. The 
learned Greek scholar, Bishop Middleton, says, that the Greek 
word, and, does not allow of this rendering. The more com- 
mon way of rendering the passage is that adopted in the Eng- 
lish Bible, supplying the word is, in two places. " All Scrip- 



100 OUR BIBLE. 

ture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable," &c. 
Professor Stuart says, " all Scripture " here means, in the 
original, every constituent part or portion of the Scriptures. 
The famous De Wette, the foe of supernaturalism, says of the 
word theopneustos, (translated, — " given by inspiration of 
God,") — " here it means inspired, durchgeistet, i. e., animated 
through and through by the Spirit ; geistvoll, i. e., full of the 
Spirit." Looking back, we find that Paul had been speak- 
ing to Timothy of "the Holy Scriptures," which "from a 
child " he had known ; of these he speaks when he says, " All 
Scripture is given by inspiration of God." Such, in Paul's 
view, was the Old Testament, with all the books which it 
now contains. 

INCIDENTAL EXPRESSIONS. 

" The Scripture cannot be broken" 

Such is the declaration of Christ. It is a hard saying foi 
some of his readers. Oftentimes an incidental remark has as 
much power as a labored argument. It would not be possible 
to add any thing to the effect of these few words of Christ. 
He here propounds a general truth ; he declares that what- 
ever was within those parchment rolls on which their Scrip- 
tures were recorded, was incapable of refutation, and left no 
room for doubt or cavil. 

" Doth God take care for oxen ? or saith He it altogether 
for our sakes ? " 

Here it is implied that it was God who spoke in the law of 

Moses. 

" Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit which 
was in them did signify" &c. 

Here we see men, under a supernatural guidance, endeav- 
oring to find out the meaning, in some particulars, of that 



OUR BIBLE. 101 

which they themselves had uttered ! " Unto whom it was 
revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did min- 
ister the things which are now reported unto you," &c. 

" Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he 
wrote of me. But if ye believe not his sayings, how shall ye 
believe my words ? " 

We have here an indorsement of Moses from the Saviour's 
own lips ! " He wrote of me." Christ is in the pentateuch, 
therefore. Some cannot find him there. They need the 
disciples' walk to Emmaus, in which Jesus, "beginning at 
Moses and all the prophets, expounded to them in all the 
Scriptures the things concerning himself." 

" They have Moses and the prophets ; let them hear them." 
So spake Abraham to the rich man " in torment." Moses 
and the prophets are all sufficient, if obeyed, to save a soul 
from future punishment ; and their testimony is such that one 
reappearing from the dead could add to it nothing effectual. 

" We have a more sure word of prophecy." 

This is the assertion, respecting the Old Testament, of the 
apostle Peter, who is here giving precedence to the Old Tes- 
tament, as a guide, in comparison with all that he saw in the 
holy mount. 

But these will serve for a specimen of the ways in which 
the inspiration of the Bible is continually taken for granted, 
or asserted, by the various writers. And yet some say that we 
set up claims for the Bible which it does not make for itself. 
If the attentive reader will examine any Epistle, for example, 
or one of the Gospels, he will be surprised to find how often 
the divine inspiration of the Scriptures is brought to view. 



102 OUE BIBLE 



PRETERNATURAL POWER OF THE BIBLE. 

The picture galleries of the old world are full of Scripture 
scenes. The works of the great masters are scriptural sub- 
jects. Those fishermen, those humble "reporters and note 
takers," as they are called, those careless, unaided evange- 
lists, and the writer of the Acts, have touched the genius of 
Raphael and Rubens. One of the greatest evidences of power 
is to awaken great conceptions in other minds. None have 
done so much for the fine arts as the writers of the Bible. 
One cannot believe that they were " unaided stenographers," 
without risking his literary reputation. 

The books which the Bible has caused to be written are evi- 
dences of its being supernaturally inspired. 

The Paradise Lost and Pilgrim's Progress could not have 
been written but for the Bible. The literature of the Scrip- 
tures, — the books which have been written to illustrate its lan- 
guage and history, as well as its doctrines, is of astonishing 
extent. In the library of a Theological Seminary containing, 
perhaps, fifteen thousand volumes, as one looks round on the 
array of learning and talent and remembers that the Bible 
gave existence to the greater part of it, he is impressed with 
the thought that such a book is wholly different from any 
which men wrote, or could have written, from their own sug- 
gestion. We understand the secret of its prolific power by 
reading such passages as these : — 

"The Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man sjeak- 
eth unto his friend." 

" And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord." 

" After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came 
to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua." 

" When the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was 
with the judge." 



OUR BIBLE. 103 

" The Lord revealed himself to Samuel." 
" The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind." 
" David, the son of Jesse, said, The Spirit of the Lord spake 
by me, and his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel 
said, the Rock of Israel spake to me." 

u Well spake the Holy Ghost by the mouth of Esaias." 
" The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel." 
"The word of the Lord came unto Hosea, Joel, Amos, 
Micah." 

" God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets 
since the world began." 

Remembering that the New Testament records the fulfil- 
ment of prophecies, in which the truth of God is involved, we 
perceive that such a record could not be permitted to be made 
carelessly, and without divine superintendence. Therefore 
Christ said to the writers, " The Comforter, which is the Holy 
Ghost, shall be in you," and " will guide you into all truth." 
" He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever 
I have said unto you." Surely, then, we must write upon our 
Bible the words of John in the Revelation : " These are the 
true sayings of God." 

An argument for the inspiration of the Bible may be founded 
on the actual place which the Scriptures have obtained. For 
eighteen hundred years, at least, they have been the only guide 
of generations to heaven. All which they have known of God, 
and truth, and duty, and future retribution, and the way to be 
saved, they have derived from the Bible. So it will be till the 
end of time. May we not confidently say that a book which 
God foresaw, to say the least, would thus affect the destinies 
of millions, would not have been permitted to reach the place 
which it has obtained, unless it had his sanction, and was sub- 
stantially that which men take it to be — The Word of God ? 
Some one asked Joanna Baillie and Dr. Lushington, when 



104 OUR BIBLE. 

they were together, " Do you believe in special providence ? " 
" Yes," said one of them, " on great occasions." — Even they 
could have found such an * occasion ' for divine interposition, in 
the history of the Bible. 



THE ENGLISH BIBLE. 

Our present English version of the Bible was made by 
order of King James of England, and was completed in 1611. 
Forty-seven of the best scholars and divines were employed. 
They were divided into six companies, varying from seven to 
ten men in each. The eighth rule prescribed by the king was, 
that every man of each company should take the same chap- 
ter, or chapters, and having translated them, " all to meet to- 
gether, to confer what they have done, and agree for their 
part what shall stand." The result was, that every part of 
the Bible was considered, first, by each of the translators in 
the company to which that portion was assigned ; then, by 
that company revising the work of each of their number ; 
then, by every one of the six companies, each company re- 
vising the doings of all the rest ; and finally, .by a committee 
of revision, consisting of the chief persons of all the companies. 
There being six companies, each composed of from seven to 
ten men, it follows that each part of their work was examined 
at least fourteen times, many parts fifteen, and some seven- 
teen times. These men were eminently good, as well as thor- 
oughly versed in Hebrew and Greek ; i and we have, in the 
English tongue, a version of the Holy Scriptures which comes 
as near to the mind of the Holy Spirit as can be expected in 

1 See an interesting and valuable little work, " The Translators Revived,' 
by Rev. A. W. McLure, D. D. New York : Charles Scribner. Also, " The 
Mine Explored : A Help to the Reading of the Bible." American Sunday 
School Union. * 



OUR BIBLE. 105 

a translation. When we think of the past influence of the Bible 
on those who use the English tongue, — while some even ven- 
ture to predict that this is to prevail greatly over other tongues, 
we cannot doubt that, as the Bible is the gift of God, he would 
have specially directed the translation of it into a language 
which was to bear his messages to such a portion of the human 
family. Its influence on the language itself is wonderful. 

INSPIRATION AND ORTHODOXY. 

We shall not continue to believe in the deity of Christ, and 
of the Holy Spirit, nor in the system of truth associated with 
a belief in their deity, unless we believe in the divine and plen- 
ary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. A belief in the doc- 
trine of the Trinity is generally accompanied with an ac- 
knowledgment of the Bible as wholly inspired ; and the 
rejection of the plenary inspiration of the Bible is generally 
followed by a disbelief of the Trinity. Just before the walls 
of Jerusalem were carried by the Roman arms, it is said 
that a voice was heard in the Holy of Holies, saying, " Let us 
go hence." Begin to invade the defences which a belief in 
the inspiration of the Scriptures throws around the Bible, and 
the Father, Son, and Spirit will, in effect, say, Let us go 
hence. We may search for them with all candor and supposed 
willingness to believe, but we shall not find them there. 

There are, in some minds, honest doubts respecting the gen- 
uineness of particular books, or portions of books. But this, 
and all the questions which may divide good men, are differ- 
ent from recognizing no inspired revelation, or from rejecting 
the Bible as being the word of God. 

There is no certain foothold for faith the moment that we 
abandon a belief in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures. 
Unless we admit that, in composing the Bible, the writers 
were specially aided, guided, superintended by God, so that 



106 OUR BIBLE. 

the Scriptures are the word of the Lord, and of supreme au- 
thority, of essential accuracy, — unless we have a tribunal before 
which reason must bow implicitly, and, judging by the ordina- 
ry proofs that a thing is revealed, receive the revelation with- 
out cavil, — we are at once without any safe guide to faith or 
practice ; we may believe any thing or nothing, as our de- 
praved and deceitful hearts may choose. If a certain illus- 
tration does not happen to suit our taste, — " The writer was an 
uninspired man, and followed the suggestions of his own fan- 
cy." Does an argument press us too closely, — " Great allow- 
ance must be made for Oriental exaggeration." Is a certain 
truth inconsistent with our wishes, — " Our reason is as com- 
petent as that of Matthew or Peter." Is an assertion of Christ 
too solemn, too fearful, — " Mark may have taken notes inac- 
curately, or lost some of them, or copied them wrong." Where 
are we, then ? What a wild, dark, howling ocean is around 
us ! no sun, no star ; the chart — who knows if it be all true ? 
The very place upon it where my all is at stake, may be ut 
terly erroneous ; and as for the needle, it never had plenary 
magnetism ; and if it had, the compass has been tampered 
with by so many ignorant hands that it cannot traverse. Here 
we are on the sea of time, driving out upon the ocean of eter- 
nity ; and where we shall arrive God only knows. Has God 
sent me out upon this tremendous voyage, laden with that 
for which a world might not be given in exchange, and end- 
less consequences depending on my safe arrival, and yet has 
he provided me with nothing but my poor reason, which never 
went on such a voyage before ? We have been accustomed 
to believe in the benevolence of God to his creatures ; but what 
do I need more than a perfect, unerring revelation of his will ? 
And see ! the ocean is white with sails, all of them tossed, and 
not comforted. O, send us a chart whose delineations shall be 
authentic, a compass whose needle shall, by its true magnetic 



OUR BIBLE. 107 

power, be like the voice of God to my ship, " This is the 
way ; walk ye therein." 

Blessed be God, we, who believe in the plenary inspiration 
of the Bible, have a fulfilment of this prayer. We have such 
" a sure word of prophecy." No " inaccuracies," " imperfec- 
tions," " ignorance," " fallibility," of the writers detract in the 
least from the belief that this Bible is, in its truths and its es- 
sential expressions, deserving of the same reverence and sub- 
mission as though it were written on the throne of God with 
his own hand, and had been visibly delivered, as the tables of 
stone were delivered in the presence of more than six hun- 
dred thousand witnesses. 



THE DIVINE CURSE AGAINST DEISM AND FORGERY. 

The " Revelation " by the apostle John was written last of 
the inspired books, and extends, in its predictions and direc- 
tions, to the end of time. The impression which it makes upon 
us is, that it is the close of divine revelations. Now, it is no- 
ticeable that, at the close of this last book, there should be 
written these words : " For I testify unto every man that 
heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man 
shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues 
which are written in this book. And if any man shall take 
away from these things, God shall take away his part out of 
the book of 'life, and from the holy city, and from the things 
which are written in this book." This looks like a flaming 
sword turning every way to keep the inspired book from wil- 
ful additions and mutilation ; and by implication it asserts that 
revelation is closed. 

To this it is replied, that the book of Revelation was as dis- 
tinct a thing, in its composition, from the rest of the Bible, as 
Luke's Gospel is from the five books of Moses. If this Reve- 



108 OUR BIBLE 

lation happened, in after years, to be bound up with other 
writings, as men collect " Sermons on the Death of Webster " 
for example, and bind them in one volume, how absurd to 
suppose that the last paragraph in the last sermon of that vol- 
ume could, in any way, have reference to the whole volume ! 

But some think that there was a providential design in 
causing the Book of Revelation to be written last, and in so 
directing affairs that it should stand as the last book of the 
Bible. Therefore they say, that the caution and threatening 
at the close of this book virtually apply to the whole Bible. 

At the end of certain private grounds which terminate in an 
angle where two roads meet, we find the following conspicuous 
notice : " All persons trespassing upon these grounds will 
be dealt with according to law." The grounds of this owner 
are known to extend an eighth of a mile ; but they are divided 
into orchard, pasture, and fields for tillage. Stone walls sepa- 
rate them. 

Certain men are overheard, near the orchard, debating 
whether the notice at the end of the farm is designed to pro- 
tect the whole of the premises, or merely the pasture land at 
the angle where the farm ends. Stone walls, it is argued, 
separate the piece in which the notice stands, from the other 
portions. Besides, they distinctly remember that the owner 
came into possession of these several portions of his estate at 
times considerably distant from each other. One says that he 
is sure of this ; for he has examined the registry, of deeds on 
this very point. Had the owner enclosed the whole property 
at one and the same time with one wall, they argue that there 
could be no question how much the warning was intended to 
protect ; but they conclude that if trespassers poach on the 
hill, or take any thing in the fields, they are beyond the limits 
which the cautionary sign-board was meant to cover, notwith- 
standing all the premises belong to one man. 



OUR BIBLE. 109 

That fearful curse against those who tamper with the book 
to which it is appended, occurring at the very close of Scrip- 
ture, raises one of those questions which no arguments can 
determine, but which every one is disposed to answer accord- 
ing to the amount of faith which he may have in the Bible as 
an inspired book. Some regard it as a literary accident, that 
those words stand where they do. Others cannot resist the 
belief that, virtually, they reach back to the first chapter of 
Genesis, and that providence intended that they should be a 
sort of curfew, or a burglar's alarm bell, for the whole Bible. 
They who wilfully derogate from the Bible, they who know- 
ingly add their inventions to it, are alike the objects of this 
fearful anathema. — We must not impugn another's motives 
in his opinions with regard to the Bible. While we may 
deprecate their influence, we must make allowance to each 
other for differences of education and association ; and we shall 
do well to bear in mind the words of Jesus himself on this 
very point : " If any man hear my words and believe not, I 
judge him not ; for I came not to judge the world, but to save 
the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, 
hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, it 
shall judge him in the last day." 

It is apparent that the Bible was made for faith. While it 
is so arranged as to regard our doubts and difficulties, nowhere 
do we find it suspicious or jealous of artifice and cunning in 
its readers ;■ but, with consciousness of honesty and truth, it 
speaks as to those who wish to be informed and instructed. 

TWOFOLD APPLICATION OP TTIE 

NAME. 

There is a happy coincidence, and it is eminently suggestive, 
in the two greafe meanings, in the Scriptures, of the term, " The 
Word of God." 
10 



110 OUR BIBLE. 

It belongs by prior right to Him who is before all things, and 
by whom all things consist ; who, " in the beginning, was the 
Word," and who, in the New Testament, is represented to us 
as acting with the prerogatives of Deity, in such ways that we 
may well inquire what is left to the Supreme God, if this Word 
himself be not God. All things being " made by him and for 
him," " upholding all things by the word of his power," " Lord 
of all," the final Judge of men, he may be said to be the acting 
Deity as to our world ; and being, as he surely is, the expo- 
nent of the Godhead, its revealer, its great manifestation, he 
is appropriately called "The Word," — for the reason, per- 
haps, that a word is the exponent of the secret thought, the 
enunciation of the will, the executive act of the reason. 

We also apply the term, word of God, to the things which 
holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost, and which were committed to writing. One of the most 
unworthy efforts of modern insidious jealousy of the Bible is, 
to destroy its commonly received title, " the word of God." If 
Jesus Christ sanctioned the Old Testament as a divine guide, 
it is as much " the word of God " as certain ten paragraphs 
inscribed on two tablets are " the law of God." Peter says, 
" If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God." 
This is a plain reference to Holy Scripture. He does not 
mean, of course, that every religious teacher shall imitate the 
voices and modes of utterance by which God spoke, but con- 
form his teachings to the things uttered ; and these things are 
as properly called " the word of God " as a certain book is 
called " Speeches." Would " oracles " be more agreeable to 
those who wish to disfranchise the Bible of its old name ? 
But this is nearly synonymous with " word of God." To 
the Jews, Paul says, " were committed the oracles of God ; " 
they " received the lively oracles, to give unto us," evidently in 
a written form. " The first principles of the oracles of God" 



OUR BIBLE. Ill 

are spoken of, intimating some systematized, codified records ; 
and we are told to speak according to them. If the Scrip- 
tures be not worthy to be called " the word of God," let it be 
proved ; but if they are, the exception which is taken by some 
to the name, is whimsical ; an exaggerated idea of the " corrup- 
tions of Scripture," so called, infests the imagination ; and the 
best cure is, to let the word of Christ dwell in us so richly 
that we shall cease to dwell unduly on the literary imperfec- 
tions which, after all, cannot mar its original purity. 

Our Redeemer and our Bible, then, are connected together 
by a term which illustrates and enhances the character of 
each, by the mutual reflection of their attributes and object ; 
the Bible, with its blending of divine and human characteris- 
tics, symbolizing Him that was from the beginning — the 
Word of life, which was with the Father, and was manifested 
unto us ; and in like manner, the Word made flesh is an im- 
pressive illustration, in one important respect, of that other 
word, the Bible. For of Him the prophet says, " He shall 
grow up as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground ; 
he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, 
there is no beauty in him that we should desire him. He is 
despised and rejected of men." Now, the natural heart of 
man is sometimes offended because such a book as the Bible 
professes to be, should have so much that is human about it ; 
come into existence, in its various parts, so incidentally, and 
almost accidentally ; be, for some time, in many portions of it, 
doubtfully received ;" and afterwards be disputed as to its 
claims ; and at last be subjected to such accidents of transla- 
tion, and all the vicissitudes of its long history, that (as it was 
said of the Messiah, " His visage was marred more than any 
man's, and his form more than the sons of men,") the "hun- 
dred thousand various readings " which, Gilbert Wakefield 
says, are connected with its several passages, seem to many a 



112 OUR BIBLE. 

sufficient reason for rejecting it as a divine book ; and men 
say to it, as they did among the crowning scenes of redemp- 
tion to Him who was the Word of God, " Save thyself ! " — 
imputing injury and the seeming absence of divine interposi- 
tion to imposture. 

But the afflictions of the Bible and their results are, like 
the scenes of Calvary, among the chief evidences of a divine 
original. Notwithstanding the " hundred thousand various 
readings," the received meaning of the Bible has been sub- 
stantially the same from age to age. As the distinct exist- 
ence of the Jews is a standing confirmation of the truth of 
Scripture, so the integrity of the word of God, surviving the 
persecutions, wars, fires, floods, of so many ages, the careless- 
ness and fraud of men, is a standing argument in favor of its 
divine origin. If God has thus interposed to preserve a book 
amid such perils, and while it has been the object of human and 
infernal malice, of mistaken zeal, and the betraying kiss, it is - 
not too much to believe that He interposed in its composition. 
The various alterations and the partial injuries which it has 
received, are strong proofs of the protecting care which has 
watched over it. We are told, we will suppose, that the most 
perfect steamer which ever floated is now on her way to us 
from some port in the East Indies. She arrives at one of our 
docks ; but, as men examine her, some say, " Is this a perfect 
ship ? Her chimneys are white with dried salt spray ; some of 
the rigging has been spliced ; some of the spars are strained ; 
some of the copper is started; barnacles are on her hull." 
The reply is, She has come across the ocean. It would not 
be the identical ship of which we were told, if the sea had not 
thus marked her. 

Does any one say, The Bible has signs of injury upon it ? 
We answer, It has come to us across the ocean of time ; it 
has been around the globe ; its " hundred thousand emenda- 



OUR BIBLE. 113 

tions," trivial or bad, show that the hands of generations have 
been upon it. Every form of peril has assailed it in ages of 
darkness and violence ; it has been hated, cursed, chained, 
banished, burned ; floods of ungodly men have compassed 
it about ; friends have proposed to leave out one part, en- 
emies have torn out another. But here it is, on its way 
to the end of time, with its " hundred thousand various read- 
ings," uncorrupted in every one of its essential truths. Dis- 
coveries in science and history have sometimes cast shadows 
upon it ; astronomy, geology, hieroglyphics, exhumed cities, 
have made its friends anxious for its credibility ; but in every 
instance, thus far, the shadows have passed away, and left it 
"forever settled in the heavens." God, who made the sci- 
ences, chose, in writing the Bible, to describe natural things 
according to their universal appearance, not as they literally 
are. Hence, the Bible will always be true to nature and sci- 
ence, so long as the sun and moon endure. Wonderful book ! 
" God is in the midst of thee ; thou shalt not be moved ; God 
shall help thee, and that right early." Thou art that river 
which is to make the nations glad, till the ocean of eternity 
drinks up thy stream, and all thy revelations give place to the 
full vision of God. 

Suppose that some time, as you returned to your house, a 
friend should meet you, and say, The chamber is full of light ; 
I am afraid to go in. You approach, and the impression made 
upon you is, How dreadful is this place ! this is none other 
than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. Every 
morning and evening, if not many times a day, you would 
stand at the door of that chamber, and commune with God. 
But now, God is in that chamber, though in a different form 
of manifestation. Where is your Bible? God is in that 
book, as he is in no other revelation. Perhaps your Bible is 
outwardly poor, time-worn, and, like Jesus when on earth, ha9 
10* 



114 OUR BIBLE. 

no form, nor comeliness. Go to that Bible, and open it ; a man 
will seem to be telling some narrative ; the Psalmist will be 
complaining to his harp, or sounding its prophetic strings ; but 
to your conscience, to your heart, if you are still, and listen, a 
voice will come, like the breathings of the wind, — the voice 
of the Spirit that breathed inspiration or controlling influence 
around its every thought, — reminding you of sin, of right- 
eousness, and of judgment, of the love of God, of forgiveness 
through Christ, of fleeting time, of death, of heaven. The 
name of a departed parent, brother, sister, companion, child, 
friend, in it, links it, for you, with heaven. As you come 
nearer and nearer to the close of life, you will find that its 
value rises in your esteem and affection. "Bring me the 
book," said Sir Walter Scott, on his dying bed. " What 
book, sir ? " said his son-in-law, Mr. Lockhart. " There is 
only one book, sir ! " said that dying man, who, more than any 
other modern writer, has filled the world with his fame. 

When it is daybreak on the sea, the sailor no longer turns 
his eye to the friendly lighthouse. It has served its purpose 
for the night, it is eclipsed by the morning, and is withdrawn. 
"We have a more sure word of prophecy; where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a 
light that shineth in a dark place, until the day 
dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." 



IV. 
SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT 



FOR 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 



I. The Scriptures teach that thers is a penal- 
ty FOR DISOBEDIENCE AWAITING THE FINALLY IMPENI- 
TENT. 

This is plainly declared in Rom. ii. 5-12, 16 : "But after 
thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself 
wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the right- 
eous judgment of God, who will render to every man accord- 
ing to his deeds : to them who, by patient continuance in well 
doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal 
life ; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey 
the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, 
tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth 
evil ; of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile ; but glory, hon- 
or, and peace to every man that worketh good ; to .he Jew 
first, and also to the Gentile ; for there is no respect of per- 
sons with God. For as many as have sinned without law, 
shall also perish without law ; and as many as have sinned in 
the law, shall be judged by the law," " in the day when God 
shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to 
my gospel." The parenthetic passages omitted here, which 
occur before the last of these sentences, are a direct assertion 
of the full accountableness of the heathen world to the tribu- 

(115) 



116 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

nal of God, for their sins against their consciences and the 
light of nature. I take this whole passage of Scripture 
as a revelation of a future judgment and retribution, in 
which all men are to be judged and treated according to their 
works. 

The ideas which are presented of heaven, both by Christ 
and his apostles, come to us through objects of sense. Every 
one supposes that by these images, as, for example, " sitting 
with Christ at his table in his kingdom," " new wine," " be- 
holding his glory," and " gates of pearl," " streets of gold," 
" harps " and " crowns," it is intended to give us the idea of 
the highest pleasure of which our natures, body and soul, 
shall in another world be capable. We never subtract any 
thing from these images of heavenly joy, saying, They are 
only metaphors ; we rather say, Language here is intensified, 
to convey the ideas of future happiness. And as we believe 
that we shall have bodies in heaven " like unto " the Saviour's 
" glorious body," we are never unwilling to think that there will 
be enjoyments adapted to the body with the soul — spir- 
itual, of course, in both cases, and yet beautifully distin- 
guished, but capable of blending, as in this world. This way 
of representing unseen things to us is not so much " Oriental " 
as the only possible way, at present, of communicating spirit- 
ual objects to our understanding. 

But while the attractions of heaven suffer nothing by rea- 
son of criticisms upon the language in which they are pre- 
sented, some do not use the same tolerance, nor apply the 
same principles of interpretation, when they read or speak of 
future punishment. Here, they say, all is metaphorical, Ori- 
ental ; they select certain images, and ask if any suppose 
that the wicked are, literally, to suffer such things, from just 
these elements of pain. But the representations of heaven 
are certainly obnoxious to the very same criticisms, and si in* 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 117 

ilar questions may be asked concerning them. But being of a 
pleasurable nature, they escape criticism. Therefore, if we 
are inquired of in either case, Do you believe that these 
things are literally so ? the proper answer seems to be in 
both cases, Either these things, or things which now can 
only be expressed by them. Those earthly symbols ap- 
proach nearer than any thing with which we are now ac- 
quainted, to the things signified. 

The condition of the wicked after death is represented 
through such symbols by Christ and his apostles as a state of 
positive punishment. With a desire to speak cautiously on 
such a point, and to follow only the most obvious leadings of 
Scripture, very many are constrained to believe that while the 
finally impenitent will experience the consequences naturally 
flowing from their moral condition, those consequences of their 
sins will be kept alive by the power of God, and that contin- 
ual sin will receive continually new punishment. In the ser- 
mon on the reasonableness of endless punishment, (see the 
preface,) I assumed, for the sake of the argument, that future 
misery should consist only in the natural consequences of evil, 
and then argued that it was reasonable that these should be 
endless. I also deprecated any inquiry beyond the plain lan- 
guage of the New Testament as to the elements of punish- 
ment. The subject forbade any extended consideration of the 
nature of future punishment, nor did I undertake to state my 
own belief on that point. In attempting now to show that the 
Scriptures represent the future condition of the wicked to be 
a state of punishment, it will be submitted to the reader 
whether infliction from the hand of God be not necessarily in- 
volved in the language of the Bible. 

One of those indirect proofs of a thing which sometimes are 
more forcible and convincing than direct statements, occurs in 
the words of Christ which I will refer to as proving the future 



118 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

punishment of the wicked, in which he tells us to "fear Him 
which is able to destroy both soul and body in helV x 

If God has merely the natural ability to do this, while his 
character makes it morally impossible that he should ever do 
it, the illustration is singularly at fault. It would never be 
proper to tell a child, as a reason why it should fear its father 
and mother, that they have power to inflict a punishment 
which we know is morally impossible. Their mere natural 
ability to inflict it would not justify the exhortation, " Yea, I 
say unto you, fear them." To associate the idea of destroy- 
ing both body and soul in hell with our proper fear of God, 
our heavenly Father, if he would do no such thing, would not 
be in accordance with truth. 

Some, to avoid this difficulty, say that the passage means 
merely that God can destroy life. But so can they who kill 
the body. There is something more which God alone can do, 
and which we need rather to fear. Others, knowing that the 
original word for hell in this passage cannot mean the grave, 
propose to render the warning thus : that God can cast those 
whom he kills into the valley of Hinnom. But so could 
assassins or judicial executioners. We still look for that 
which God alone can do. Some say it must be annihilation. 
But the valley of Hinnom is notoriously symbolical of per- 
petuity — the fire always burning, the worm ever breeding. 
Why, moreover, should any place be specified in which the 
annihilation, which is the same thing every where, should 
occur ? Or what appropriateness is there in speaking of the 
soul as being annihilated there ? Destroying both soul and 
body in hell seems to be equivalent to that expression, " ever- 
lasting destruction" — an apparent contradiction of terms, 
but conveying the idea of perpetual loss and misery. 

We get no relief from these difficulties with the passage if 

i Matt. x. 28. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 119 

we turn to the milder form in which the idea is expressed in 
Luke xii. 5 : " Fear Him which after he hath killed hath 
power to cast into hell ; yea, I say unto you, Fear him ; " for 
Gehenna, understood literally as the valley of Hinnom, pre- 
sents to the mind the most terrific image of positive misery. 
Nothing can be more revolting or fearful. Let those who are 
jealous at imputations cast upon the character of God by the 
doctrine of endless punishment, explain how Jesus could even 
suggest the idea of the Father casting his offspring into a 
place, the name of which was borrowed from the most fearful 
object then known to his hearers. Until this passage is 
shown to imply no punishment from the hand of God, we 
must regard it as an impregnable proof of future visitations 
of misery upon the wicked. 

Some who believe in future punishment seek to mitigate 
the influence of the dread truth upon their feelings by the 
theory that future punishment will consist only in the natural 
effects of sin. This relieves them of the necessity to think 
that God will inflict any thing directly upon the wicked. 

One thing seems incontrovertible, viz. : the Bible does not 
teach us that sin is its own complete punishment. It is true 
that without the elements of misery in themselves, the Bible 
tells us, sinners could not be made miserable ; nor would out- 
ward inflictions constitute punishment, unless there were some- 
thing within for the fire to kindle. But it admits of a ques- 
tion whether, if the sinner should be left entirely to himself, 
undisturbed by any external power, adding new energy to 
sorrow, or opening new sources of it, he could not in time 
adjust himself, as in this world, to any circumstances. Even 
in this world, trouble, or the infliction of pain and sorrow, is 
necessary to rouse the conscience. To some extent God 
punishes men in this world, for this purpose. " Because they 
have no changes, therefore they fear not God." " Moab hath 



120 SCEIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, 
and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel." The sev- 
enty-third Psalm describes the wicked who " are not in trouble 
as other men; neither are they plagued like other men." 
Hence " their strength is firm." But even tribulation is pow- 
erless in many cases, and the sinner is either emboldened by 
temporary respite, or provoked by the rod to further oppo- 
sition. Pharaoh is an eminent example of this. It is said of 
another, " And in the time of his distress did he trespass yet 
more against the Lord ; this is that king Ahaz." Other pas- 
sages in accordance with these, to prove the positions just laid 
down, might easily be cited. 

So that however terrible and bitter the condition of the sin- 
ner might be at first, it is not inconceivable that he should at 
last say, with Satan in Paradise Lost, " Hail ! horrors, hail ! 
and thou, profoundest hell ! " if God would but depart from him. 
Sinking into a torpid, brutish state, or rousing themselves into 
defiant forms of hatred and blasphemy, occupying themselves 
with plots and counterplots in their strife with each other, the 
wicked in hell, like bad or abandoned people here, might make 
their condition tolerable. They would, for example, feel the 
need of subordination among themselves for their own protec- 
tion ; selfishness would suggest many alleviations of misery by 
mutual forbearance ; and as the worst of men — pirates, gam- 
blers, debauchees — have codes of honor, and ambition its fawn- 
ing flatteries, and pride smothers its resentment, and selfishness 
in all its forms is compelled to put on the mask of submission and 
obeisance, so the wicked, if left to themselves, even with their 
wickedness festering and their crimes becoming gigantic, might 
manage, by self-control, to reduce things into a system which 
to their wretched natures might, in very many cases, be even 
tolerable. Sin itself is no misery to a sinner ; it must meet 
with ill success, it must be compelled to feel a superior power 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 121 

acting contrary to itself; then, indeed, it is the occasion of mis- 
ery. It is no sorrow to wicked men here for God to depart 
from them ; it is rather their desire ; " therefore they say unto 
God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy 
ways." Saul never would have uttered that bitter cry, " God 
is departed from me, and is become my enemy," if the Philis- 
tines had not pursued hard after him. God and he had been 
for a long time far apart ; but very little did Saul care for this, 
until the day of his calamity made haste. 

If, therefore, there is to be, in the strict sense of the term, 
punishment, after death, it would seem that there must, in the 
nature of things, be visitations upon the wicked of that which 
the Bible calls "indignation and wrath, tribulation and an- 
guish." While there must be in the sinner himself a state of 
things which will make these inflictions punishment, there 
must also be a mighty hand stretched out forever to make the 
future condition of the wicked one of retribution. There is 
both error and truth in the common saying with many that 
future misery will proceed from conscience ; — error, if it be 
supposed that conscience left to itself will occasion torment ; 
for, if in this world, with so much to stimulate conscience, it so 
easily falls asleep, the provocations, and the necessity of self- 
defence, and redress, and all the bad influences of hell, must 
have the power totally to sear it; — but there is truth in the 
saying, if it be allowed that God is to visit the wicked in ways 
that will excite conscience against them ; this would be " in- 
fliction," compared with which fire and brimstone, though the 
most appalling images of torture we can easily conceive, do 
not convey more terrible ideas of retribution. 

Now, the Bible is continually representing the wicked as 

receiving from God positive inflictions, and not merely as 

being abandoned to themselves. Even when it speaks of many 

sources of misery which might seem to be the natural conse- 

11 



122 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

quences of their sin, it often represents these consequences as 
being administered by the direct agency of the Almighty. So 
that the two things seem to be combined. " Upon the wicked 
he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tem- 
pest ; this shall be the portion of their cup." " Now consider 
this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be 
none to deliver." " God is angry with the wicked every day. 
If he turn not, he will whet his sword ; he hath bent his bow 
and made it ready." These passages teach that sinners will 
not merely be left to the natural consequences of sin. The 
ideas of arrest, and of execution, are here presented ; the trans- 
gressor is not left to himself, with merely his sin for his pun- 
ishment. Then, again, we read, " Woe unto the wicked ; it shall 
be ill with him ; for the reward of his hands shall be given 
him." " Yea, woe unto them afeo when I depart from them." 
Even though the wicked should not suffer otherwise, nor to a 
greater degree, than they are capable of suffering in their 
minds here, yet, if they are to be punished, these sufferings 
must be kept active by an outward power ; for their natural 
tendency is to harden and stupify, or to excite passions whose 
gratification affords a certain redress. 

All this we may believe without venturing one step into the 
dominion of fancy to depict the kind and manner of those in- 
flictions which are necessary to constitute punishment. Nor 
is it necessary ; for knowing as we do by experience and obser- 
vation what the passions of the human heart are when restraint 
is weakened or removed, we need no external images of woe 
to represent what it must be for God to minister excitement to 
them by his presence and his intercourse with them. In a 
sense he departs from them, as he did from Saul. By this is 
signified the withdrawal of every thing merciful, alleviating, 
hopeful, and of a restraining, reformatory nature. Yet he 
will always make his presence to be felt ; for " if I make my 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 123 

bed in hell, behold, thou art there." While, therefore material 
images of woe, if too specific, seem to degrade the subject, and 
are apt to pass over, in their effect on some, from the extreme 
of horror to the grotesque, they are not objectionable on the 
score of over-statement ; nothing which fancy ever depicted be- 
ing capable of expressing the misery which must be felt by a 
depraved soul opposed to God and with God for its punisher. 
We have only to think of what is sometimes felt at funerals 
and closing graves, to see what future misery must be in one 
of its merely incidental forms — the loss of all good, forever. 
If God shall but keep perpetually fresh such sorrows as men 
feel here, he will fulfil a large part of that which the Saviour 
and the apostles have declared to be the future portion of the 
wicked. So that when good men, like Leighton, Baxter, An- 
drew Fuller, the Wesleys, Watts, and Edwards, portray, ac- 
cording to their several conceptions, the pains of the wicked, 
they fall far below the truth ; and their representations, if at 
all objectionable, are not so for the reason that they surpass 
the dread reality; for that is impossible. Let us now con- 
sider the following passages : — 

" As therefore the tares are gathered and are burned in the 
fire, so shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of man 
shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his 
kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity, and 
shall cast them into a furnace of fire ; there shall be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth." These same closing words are used a 
few verses afterwards, in explaining the parable of the net. 
Not to burden the attention of the reader, there is one passage 
more which I will quote in connection with the preceding, for 
the sake of briefly remarking upon them, before passing to the 
next topic. 

The passage to which I refer is, " And the third angel fol- 
lowed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the 



124 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 



# 



beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead or in 
his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God 
which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indig- 
nation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in 
the presence of- the holy angels, and in the presence of the 
Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever 
and ever : and they have no rest, day nor night, who worship 
the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of 
his name." l 

If the Bible says that angels, at the last day, inflict on the 
wicked that which can best be compared only to casting them 
into a furnace of fire, I will implicitly believe it. My reason 
ascertains whether this is said, beyond reasonable doubt ; then 
reason bows to revelation. I will not object that such em- 
ployment does not consist with my conceptions of angelic 
natures. If I did, the question would be appropriate, Do you 
consent that a holy angel should have cut off the hundred and 
eighty-five thousand Assyrians of Sennacherib's army in one 
night, and that another should have directed the pestilence of 
three days in Israel ? What will you do about these things ? 
You are disposed, perhaps, to associate angels with " birds and 
flowers," with elves and fairies, and not with garments rolled 
in blood, or hands reeking with slaughter. My reply is, I will 
correct my natural or acquired feelings by the word of God. 
But the word of God says that angels will cast " all things that 
offend, and them which do iniquity, into a furnace of fire." In- 
animate things are not meant; for it is added, "there shall be 
wailing and gnashing of teeth." Moreover, the word of God 
says that the idolatrous worshippers of the beast shall be tor- 
mented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy 
angels and of the Lamb. 

My only question will be again, Does the Bible mean by 

1 Rev. xiv. 9-11. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 125 

this that men will be made to suffer in a way which is most 
appropriately expressed by fire and brimstone ; that even if 
it be not literally so, there would really be nothing to choose 
between the two things, the figure and the literal meaning ? 
And does it say that holy angels, and the Lamb of God him- 
self, will look on, approve, and confirm the infliction ? If so, 
I fully and firmly believe it ; — be it figurative or literal, I 
believe it, and I will take it to be the same as literal. And I 
will postpone the explanation to my natural feelings, till I 
know more. I find that when men fully understand the enor 
mities of some outrage upon a fellow-creature, and the soul is 
filled with them, the punishment, swift or slow, meets with no 
repugnance in their nature. Perhaps when I know more 
about sin and unbelief, it will be so with regard to future pun- 
ishment. Only let me be persuaded that the language of the 
Bible, properly interpreted, declares any thing ; then there is 
no appeal. 

But I now respectfully ask the attention of the reader, when 
I say, that if I did not believe in there being a state of future 
punishment which justifies such language, I fear that I could 
not stop short of the boldest infidelity. I might even assail 
the Bible as unfit to be read. It is no relief to tell me that 
the language does not mean all which it would seem to con 
vey. I should reply, This is bad language, unless there be 
something which language of this sort only can express. But 
if it be an exaggeration of a truth, or if, for the sake of im 
prossion, an idea is conveyed which is false, a man may as 
well apologize to me for a profane blasphemer, saying that his 
oaths do not really mean all which they express, as try to 
reconcile me to the belief that suck words as these are in- 
spired. It is not the truth which offends me, but the untruth- 
fulness of the language. The words are not decorous ; my 
moral sense is abused, when I read such expressions, unless 
11* 



126 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

substantial truth requires them. The sin is not against my 
faith, but against my understanding. If there be nothing in 
holy angels, and in the Saviour, which corresponds to these 
representations, I should be tempted to go at once from the 
Bible to the teaching and preaching of some man who rejects 
the Bible, and rejects it partly because it uses such language. 
But where should I find such a preacher, who would not 
trouble me with the inconsistency of taking his text every 
Sabbath from the very book from which I seek to flee ? So 
true is it that the stoutest unbeliever cannot shake off the hold 
which the Bible has upon his moral nature. Absolute scep- 
ticism seems to be as impossible as universal knowledge. 

" Cast them into a furnace of fire, " " in the presence of the 
holy angels," " and of the Lamb." Some tell me that this is 
"Oriental;" some that it is merely "flame-picture;" some 
that it is " mere hyperbole." Now, if a mere show of dis- 
pleasure is signified by this language, the objection is, not to 
the punishment, but, that such inappropriate, such defamatory 
representations should be used in connection with the holy 
angels and the Lamb of God. If you will insist that the 
words are true, I have no objection to make. But the Bible 
does not observe the ordinary laws of decorum in language, 
unless truth would be violated by the use of other and milder 
terms than these, in describing the future infliction of punish- 
ment upon the wicked. 

The following Scriptures, teaching that the wicked are in 
misery after death, confirm the foregoing statements : " The 
wicked is driven away in his wickedness." " The ungodly are 
like the chaff which the wind driveth away." " The men of 
Sodom were wicked and sinners before God exceedingly." 
" And the Lord rained fire and brimstone out of heaven, and 
destroyed them all." " The rich man died, and was buried ; 
and in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torment." " Judas 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 127 

by transgression fell, and went to his own place." " If ye 
believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." " And 
where I am, thither ye cannot come." 

He who will say that such men as are here described meet 
in death with a change of character which prepares them at 
once for happiness, may as well assert, once for all, that delu- 
sion is practised upon us by the representations of the Bible ; 
that the object is merely to frighten the living ; that apparent 
judgments upon the wicked, death and its terrors, are merely 
a dumb show, a tragic demonstration, a dissolving view turn- 
ing, within the veil, into manifestations of compassion and 
love. There have not been wanting men, who, in their con- 
cern for the character of God, have interpreted his words of 
vengeance, and his terrible acts towards the wicked, in this 
manner — as though such deception were any relief from im- 
putations of undue severity. Archbishop Tillotson ventured 
such an explanation, and President Edwards's ironical reproof 
of him and others, for betraying their Maker's secret, is well 
known. There are some even now who, like the sect of Man- 
ichees, seem to hold that all evil resides in matter, and there- 
fore that in the separation of the soul from the body, the soul 
becomes pure. But the question before us is, What do the 
Scriptures teach ? If there be any thing conclusive in posi- 
tive statements, this is placed beyond all reasonable dispute — 
that some men die in their sins, and that after death they 
have in themselves the elements of misery. The rich man 
surely is an instance of this. Judas's " own place " was not 
heaven. 

We have seen thus far that, while the Scriptures represent 
the wicked themselves to be an essential source of their own 
misery, future punishment necessarily implies infliction, or ex- 
citation, from a source beyond the sinner himself. Some op- 
probriotfsly call this " the doctrine of endless torture." But 



128 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

there is something more terrible here than " torture." If the 
sinner were made to feel constantly that he is in the hands 
of a torturer, many a passion of his nature might minister 
strength to his resistance, and impart fortitude. But to have 
his own self excited against him forever, so as to seem the 
proximate cause of his misery, is the more helpless woe. But 
however the sources of it may be combined, we have seen that 
the wicked are in misery after death. The question now is, 
Will their misery remain for ever ? Do the Scriptures teach 
that the punishment of the wicked, made up as it necessarily 
is from the natural consequences of evil doing and positive in- 
flictions from the hand of God, will be without end ? The 
affirmative of this question I have undertaken to prove. 

But it may be said, You undertake an impossible task, be- 
cause you know nothing of futurity. Principles may yet be 
evolved which now are slumbering in the bosom of God. You 
must journey farther than man has gone before you can de- 
cide this subject. " Have the gates of death been opened to 
thee ? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death ? " 

The only question to be considered is, "What do the Scrip- 
tures now teach as to the future condition of the wicked ? Do 
they, or do they not, represent it as unalterable ? If we can 
ascertain this, we need not perplex ourselves as to ulterior 
revelations ; nor should we refuse to receive the present testi- 
mony of God, with the objection that something more may 
possibly be said hereafter. What, then, does the Bible teach 
us as to the state and prospects of the impenitent after death ? 

Let the reader now endeavor to lay out of the question all 
considerations relating to the reasonableness or justice of fu- 
ture, endless punishment. Let him not foreclose the discus- 
sion in his own mind by saying that it is unreasonable and un- 
just, and therefore that it cannot be in the Bible. Rather let 
him first ascertain whether it be taught there, and then, if he 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 129 

will, let him debate with himself whether finding it there, he 
will, or will not, receive the Bible itself. 

In considering whether the Scriptures teach that the pun- 
ishment of the wicked will be without end, we will see if the 
following proposition can be maintained : — 

II. Redemption by Christ is represented as hav- 
ing FOR ITS OBJECT SALVATION FROM FINAL PERDITION. 

If upon the failure of all which is done in redemption to 
save men, they are to be subjected to another probation after 
death, there are powerful reasons to think that the surest way 
to effect their recovery is, to let them know beforehand that 
God will give them a second trial. 

For this is manifestly the way in which God proceeded with 
the Hebrew people, whose reformation in this world, and 
whose allegiance, he was seeking to secure. In foresight of 
their apostasy and punishment, they were told beforehand that 
they should have a second probation. The following words 
are an explicit declaration to this effect, and are an instance of 
divine wisdom which man would never have devised, from fear 
of consequences. After telling Israel of the happy fruit which 
would attend their obedience, and the direful effects of their 
apostasy, instead of leaving them in doubt whether they will 
have a second probation, God expressly tells them that they 
shall be again restored. " When thou art in tribulation and all 
these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if 
thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his 
voice, (for the Lord thy God is a merciful God,) he will not 
forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of 
thy fathers which he sware unto thee." 1 

It might have been argued with much plausibleness that 
such an announcement would be inexpedient ; that it would 

1 Deut. iv. 30. 



130 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

have a direct effect to make men careless and presumptuous 
But infinite wisdom judged otherwise, and proceeded at differ- 
ent times to say, " If his children forsake my law then will I 
visit their transgressions with the rod ; — nevertheless my lov- 
ing kindness will I not utterly take from him." And again . 
" If my covenant be not with day and night, then will I cast 
off the seed of Jacob ; — for I will cause their captivity to re- 
turn, and have mercy upon them." Again : " I will for this 
afflict the seed of David, but not forever." 

What principle in moral natures is there which makes this 
announcement, to sinners, of future clemency and restoration, 
wise and expedient ? The obvious answer is, Hope. Whether 
or not there can ever be repentance without hope, it is certain 
that hope is a powerful means of repentance. " How many 
hired servants of my father have bread enough and to spare, 
and I perish with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, 
and say unto him, Father, I have sinned — ." The promise 
of a future trial, the explicit avowal of relenting in his dis- 
pleasure, with a view to the final recovery of the transgressors, 
was deemed by the Most High to be essential in the exercise 
of his administration in ancient times. The admixture of 
hope in his threatenings, the line of light in the horizon below 
the coming tempest, was regarded by Jehovah as a necessary 
means of effecting the ultimate restoration of the Jews, so that, 
to this day, provision is made for hope to fasten its hand upon 
exceeding great and precious promises, the moment that the 
thought arises of turning to God. He would have the sinners 
think, in their deep distress under the chastising rod, that he 
would be found of them, if they returned and sought him, and 
that he made provision for hope even while the terrible blow 
was about to descend. 

In offering pardon and salvation to men through the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ, and in setting forth the consequences 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 1G1 

of neglecting so great salvation, if God does not intimate that, 
nevertheless, the wicked shall not be utterly cast off, surely it 
is not because it would be inconsistent with the principles of 
moral government thus to mingle hope with chastisement. 
We have seen that intimations of future mercy were made to 
men who were abusing the most signal acts of divine favor ; 
and that to secure their future repentance, God judged it wise 
and prudent to prevent the ill effect which wrath and punish- 
ment might have upon them, by so ordering it that they should 
recollect amidst their punishment that even long before the 
moment of descending wrath, he remembered mercy, and that, 
accordingly, when about to cast them off, he said, " How shall 
T give thee up ? — my heart is turned within me, my repent- 
ings are kindled together." And the anointed prophet said in 
his name, " He will return, he will have mercy upon us ; and 
thou wilt cast their iniquities into the depths of the sea." All 
this, it will be remembered, was not a sudden relenting ; it 
was part of a plan announced so long beforehand as to give 
evidence of special design. 

We, therefore, say, that if no such foretokens of far distant 
mercy and forgiveness are now made to those who reject 
Christ, it cannot properly be argued that it would be unsuita- 
ble, and that wisdom and prudence forbid. On the contrary, 
such promises would be in accordance with those former deal- 
ings of God with men in which he has manifested the most 
peculiar love for transgressors. It would be analogous to his 
former conduct should he intimate, in immediate connection 
with his threatenings, that if we neglect our present opportuni- 
ty and means of salvation, and subject ourselves necessarily to 
a long and fearful discipline of sorrow, nevertheless the time 
will come when he will return and be pacified towards us for 
all which we have done. If no such intimations are given, 
we have strong presumptive evidence that it is because the 
condition of the wicked at death is final. 



132 * SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

For, as we read the threatenings against Edom, and Baby 
Ion, and Egypt, and Tyre, we find no words of promise min 
gled with the predictions of their doom. Probation for them 
is past ; hence, when God is declaring his vengeance against 
them, not one word is uttered which, in the hour of their down- 
fall, would come to their memories as a ray of hope. The 
utter ruin and desolation of those kingdoms show the reason 
for withholding every promise of future mercy ; it was intend- 
ed that their destruction should be final. 

But it may be said, Is God under any obligation to disclose 
all his future purposes with regard to the wicked ? Surely 
not ; but certainly he will not deceive us ; he is not obliged 
to tell us any thing ; but if he tells us a part, he will not make 
false impressions. 

But some will say, It may now be wise in God to vary his 
plan, and suffer the wicked to " depart " with the full expec- 
tation that their doom is forever ; and then he may interpose 
and save them. Who wi)l deny that this is possible ? 

It is evidently the object of the gospel to save men here 
from their sins, and to rescue them from future misery, limited 
or endless. Is it honest, or, would it not be like " false pre- 
tences," to make the impression that there is to be no further 
probation after death, if the idea is utterly inconsistent with 
the character of God ? We know what is thought of one who 
offers his wares as positively the last, and then produces more. 
The question is simply this : Would God seek to save men by 
making them think that this is their only chance of pardon, 
when he knows that it is not to be the last ? But if God in- 
tended that we should believe this to be the last, who among 
the sons of the mighty is entitled to the merit of having un- 
deceived us ? It is impiety to assert that there is a future 
probation, against the plain declarations of the Bible, if such 
declarations are made. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 133 

Now let us examine the inspired record. At the very close 
of the Bible, we read, " He that is unjust let him be unjust 
still, and he that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is 
righteous let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him 
be holy still." As the " unjust" and. " filthy " never could be 
directed to refrain, in this world, from efforts to become good, 
(unless their day of grace were past,) these words are obvious- 
ly a declaration that character is unchangeable after death. 
In faithful consistency even to the last with the great distin- 
guishing feature of the Christian religion, viz., regard for the 
individual, the closing words of the Bible have reference to 
each accountable member of the human family : " And behold 
I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every 
man according as his work shall be." Here is the place where 
we should look for intimations, if any could be made, of future 
probation. Here is the promontory which runs down to the 
unfathomable main, looks forth on " that ocean we must sail 
so soon ; " and as it terminates all earthly efforts after salva- 
tion, does it give us one hint about some future method of re- 
covery ? Are there signals prepared on this cape and headland, 
indicating to the eye of despair, afar off, that the cross of Christ 
holds out proposals of reconciliation still, to those who trampled 
it under foot, on their way to eternity ? On the contrary, 
every thing makes the impression on the vast majority of read- 
ers ever since these words were written, that the results of 
life are to be final. No hopeful class of probationers are rep- 
resented as " without," when the righteous have entered 
through the gates into the city. All the sublime images in the 
last chapters of this book, come thronging down to that shore 
where inspiration lays aside its pen and looks towards the shore- 
less waste beyond time. It has been said that the Old Testa- 
ment en Is with a curse. This is a mistake. It ends with a 
promise of turning the hearts of fathers and children, to avert 
12 



134 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

a curse. But no prediction of any turning of hearts in eter- 
nity occurs at the close of that book which gives us the last 
information respecting the future. Its silence is as impressive 
as its few decisive words. 

We can imagine how Christ would have drawn the picture 
of retribution had he followed the Old Testament, in doing so, 
in its hopeful and prophetic intermingling of light with the 
darkness. Making the prospect terrific, at first, beyond all 
human power of description, to enforce the duty of immediate 
repentance, and to deter from sin, then, appealing to our sense 
of propriety, our magnanimity, our shame, he would have told 
us how in the future, more or less remote, God would visit his 
erring and perverse children with his remonstrances ; how he 
himself would weep over them and repeat the offers of pardon ; 
and in view of all this we can imagine how he would expos- 
tulate. Such a procedure would accord with the principles 
of human nature and of the divine government, as illustrated 
in the history of Israel. Is the Saviour less compassionate 
and ready to forgive than the God of the Old Testament ? — for 
we see God listening to catch the first sigh of repentance ; and 
when he hears it, he proclaims, " I have surely heard 
Ephraim bemoaning himself thus : Thou hast chastised me and 
I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke ; turn 
thou me and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my 
God." Not one word like this do we hear from the lips of 
him who was the brightness of the Father's glory and the ex- 
press image of his person. Where is prophecy, with her glow- 
ing tongue, foretelling, at the hour of captivity, the sinner's 
final return? The opening of hell, and the final release of 
Satan and his angels, and of wicked men, would have been an 
anticipation sublime beyond most other visions ; and, if allow- 
able,^ it could not have failed to excite the imagination of seers 
and prophets. But where are the Isaiahs, stretching their vis- 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 135 

ion beyond time and the captivity of hell, saying, " Comfort 
ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye com- 
fortably to the cursed, and say unto them that their warfare is 
accomplished, that their iniquity is pardoned ; for they have 
received of the Lord's hand double for all their sins." Can it 
be that not even from you, beloved John, is there a vision or a 
word of hope for sinners after death? You saw the dead, 
small and great, stand before God, the books opened, and 
another book, which is the book of life. You saw the judg- 
ment, and the doom ; the lake of fire was first prepared by 
casting death and hell into it, and when all was ready, whoso- 
ever was not found written in the book of life, you saw him 
cast into the lake of fire. No syllable of merey ? No visit from 
the angel that talked with thee, saying, Come up hither, to see, 
from a higher point, beyond that lake? Have you no yearn- 
ing look ? — not even one slightly 4 musical dark saying upon the 
harp, to keep us from suspecting that God can ever be impla- 
cable ? In the Old Testament he relents and repents. " His 
soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." " How shall I 
make thee as Admah ! How shall I set thee as Zeboim ! 
My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled to- 
gether." Is that Old Testament, which is represented by 
scoffers as " cruel," " sanguinary," " vindictive," actually more 
merciful in its expressions towards rebellious Israel than the 
New Testament is towards men who died in their sins ? 

How strange that He, who wept over Jerusalem, could say, 
" Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for 
the devil and his angels," and let fall no expressions of com 
miseration or word of hope, nor leave some elliptical " not with 
standing," — an unfinished sentence, a place with asterisks, a 
chance even for a guess that all would not be forever deter 
mined for the wicked, at the last day. 

Mark the altered language, the different tone and manner 



136 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

of the Saviour towards the wicked in the other world, compared 
with his words and behavior towards our sinful race when he 
was on earth. " The master of the house has risen up, and 
shut to the door." They knock ; he says, " I tell you I know 
you not, whence ye are. Depart from me." The direction 
is, " Bind him, hand and foot." They " cut him asunder, and 
appoint him his portion," not with candidates for heaven under 
discipline, but " with the hypocrites." He is " thrust out." 
Christ uses the expressions, " lose his soul ; " " be cast away ; " 
" salted with fire ; " " grind him to powder ; " " son of perdi- 
tion ; " " slay them before me ; " " seek me and not find me ; " 
" gather the good, and cast the bad away ; " " great gulf fixed; " 
" die in your sins ; " " where I am ye cannot come." In vari- 
ous parts of the Bible we meet with phrases of the like tenor, — 
such as " wrath to come ; " " shame and everlasting contempt ; " 
'' torment us before the time ;" "reap corruption ;" "wages of 
sin is death ; " " more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judg- 
ment ; " " mist of darkness forever and ever." Indeed, these 
incidental expressions, interwoven every where throughout the 
Bible, assume that the doctrine of future, endless punishment 
for sin is a matter of course. The common mode of referring 
to the future, implies it. " Because there is wrath, beware 
lest he take thee away with his stroke ; " " then a great ransom 
will not deliver thee." " I will laugh at your calamity, I will 
mock when your fear cometh." The numerous passages of 
this tenor do not suggest any idea of future clemency. 

Paul thus declares the end of the wicked : " The Lord Jesus 
shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flam- 
ing fire, taking vengeance on them that knew not God, and 
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who shall be 
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the 
Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to 
be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe, 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 137 

for our testimony among you was believed, in that day." That 
this does not apply to the destruction of Jerusalem, as the Pa- 
pists and some Protestants would have us think, appears from 
the next chapter, in which the Thessalonians are told that " that 
day " is not " at hand," because the " man of sin " was first to be 
revealed. 

Then Peter follows him, and says, " But the heavens and the 
earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, re- 
served unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of 
ungodly men." 

Thus, while the Bible satisfies us that the redemption made 
by Christ is a final effort to save men, we do not wonder that 
those who reject the Godhead of Christ and his sacrifice for 
sin, reject also the idea of endless punishment. There is no 
adequate necessity for a divine Saviour with his vicarious sac- 
rifice, if there be no such penalty annexed to the law of God. 
Every man is then his own redeemer, either by obedience or 
by suffering. 

But the evangelical believer looks into the manger and upon 
the cross, and sees there his God incarnate. He sees, in that 
Christ, a sacrifice for his sins. The world laugh him to scorn. 
They demand whether he believes that his God is dying ; and 
every form of intellectual ridicule is poured upon him. He 
steadfastly maintains that " the Word was God," that " the Word 
was made flesh," that this incarnate Word was on the cross, " a 
ransom for many," " a propitiation through faith in his blood," 
his sufferings a substitute for the sinner's punishment. The 
believer looks to find some necessity for such an incarnation, 
and for the sacrificial death of such a being. He cannot find 
it in the need of example, moral suasion, .or representation of 
the divine interest in him ; but, in the declaration that Christ 
was once offered to bear the sins of many, he sees the appro- 
priateness of the incarnation to give a divine worth and efficacy 
12* 



138 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

to sufferings which are to atone for sin. There is no revela- 
tion to be compared with this : " God was manifest in the 
flesh," and, he " was manifested to take away our sins." By 
all the methods of imagery, symbolism, predictions, and 
most minute, pathetic delineations of his coming, his life, 
death, and resurrection, by appeals from his own lips, and those 
of men " in Christ's stead ; " by that perpetual memorial of 
him, and of his sacrifice, the Lord's supper, men are admon- 
ished, and, " as though God did beseech them," urged to ac- 
cept pardon through this infinite provision made for the for- 
giveness of sin. This produces the effect, generally, upon the 
mind, of a last effort. 

It might have been supposed that the work of Christ would 
suffice for the present dispensation, and that men rejecting or 
neglecting it would, in a future state, be approached by those 
influences which belong peculiarly to the work of the third 
person in the Godhead. But Christ said, " It is expedient for 
you that I go away ; for, if I go not away, the Comforter will 
not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. 
And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment." Something more than or- 
dinary divine influence is meant here by the Comforter ; for 
the Saviour's being in the world would not of course keep 
divine influence out of it, or prevent the disciples from receiv- 
ing comfort in God. A special divine agency is here recog- 
nized, and, by all the laws of language, a special, divine, per- 
sonal agent. His object is to reprove the world of sin, of 
righteousness, and of judgment. All which is implied in the 
idea of moral omnipotence is thus made to bear upon the 
hearts and minds of men, to effect their reconciliation to God, 
through Christ. 

Resistance to these efforts in a certain way, it is declared, 
shall have the effect, however long a time before death it may 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 139 

be made, to consign the sinner to hopeless condemnation ; for 
" whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost it shall not be 
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to 
come." 

It does not seem easy to explain how any one who " hath 
never forgiveness," " neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come," is to be saved ; nor by what moral distinctions it 
can be made to appear that some who commit one particular 
sin are justly condemned to a hopeless, unforgiven state, and 
that all the rest of mankind are to be restored. The work 
of the Holy Spirit, and the unpardonable sin against him, 
convince us that the effort of mercy to save men ends with 
life. Such words as these from Christ, " hath never forgive- 
ness, but is in danger of eternal damnation," admit of no appeal. 

In this connection let it be observed that evangelical Chris- 
tians regard the work of the Holy Spirit as of equal impor- 
tance with the death of Christ, and as essential a part of 
the work of redemption. It is from sin that we are to be 
redeemed ; it is to holiness that we are to be restored ; hell 
and heaven are a consummation, respectively, of sin and holi- 
ness. But we notice that those who reject the idea of future 
punishment dwell much on sin and holiness as being the sole 
objects of redemption, irrespective of the future state to which 
they lead. Olshausen says, " The Scriptures know no such 
pretended divestment of all egoism, that man needs as mo- 
tives neither fear nor hope, whether of damnation or eternal 
happiness ; — and rightly ; for it (i. e. this notion) exhibits itself 
either as fanatical error, as in Madame Guyon, or, which 
is doubtless most common, as indifference and torpidity." 1 
However some may regard it as a narrow and selfish thing to 
make so much, as evangelical Christians do, of " salvation " 
and " safety," we find that the New Testament sets us the 

1 Commentary, v. 302. 



140 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

example. Its chief burden is holiness, likeness to God ; but 
it appeals to our love of happiness and dread of pain ; senti- 
mental philosophy would substitute for these instincts a per- 
ception of the " good, the beautiful, and the true ; " the gos- 
pel insists on these, but the way to reach them is through the 
natural constitution which God has given us. Inspiration 
does not disdain to say, " God so loved the world that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should 
not perish but have everlasting life." " He that believeth 
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned." 
" We shall be saved from wrath through him." " Who have 
fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." " What 
shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul ; or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul ? " The attempt to show that all this is unworthy of our 
" noble aspirations," is only professing to be wise ; but " the fool- 
ishness of God is wiser than men." The work of the Holy 
Spirit in applying the redemption by Christ to the souls of 
men has for its object not only to save them from sin, but 
from its " wages," which " is death." 

All having failed, and men going from under the concentrat- 
ed influences of redeeming mercy into a future state, if then 
the God who has provided such a plan of redemption, is to 
meet them, and, rather than have them perish, abandon all his 
terms, and admit them to heaven upon their own conditions, 
rather than see them suffer ; if he who became flesh and died 
for them, will then consent that punishment shall try to effect 
that which love and earthly discipline, together, failed to accom- 
plish, and punishment proves to be the power of God and the 
wisdom of God unto salvation, and sinners will therefore have 
more powerful means of grace in hell than under the gospel, 
we, for our part, need another revelation to inform us of it, 
and then to explain its consistency with our present Bible. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 141 

III. The fall op angels, and of man, is a con- 
firmatory FROOF OF FUTURE ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 

This will of course have weight only with those who be- 
lieve in the existence and fall of angels, and in the fall of 
man. To prove either of these here, would be out of place ; 
and, indeed, the necessity of proving them would show that 
every thing which has thus far been said in this article is su- 
perfluous, because it takes for granted many things generally 
believed, which rest, however, on the same kind of evidence 
with the existence of angels and their fall. The apostles, 
the scribes and Pharisees, I have not thought it necessary to 
prove had a real existence, and that they were not merely 
personified principles of good and evil. If the reader be one 
who rejects the doctrine of fallen angels, and of the fall of 
man, he will read what is here said merely as showing the 
way in which those who believe these things are confirmed, by 
them, in their belief of endless retribution. Peter says, " God 
spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, 
and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved 
unto judgment." 1 Jude says, " And the angels which kept not 
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved 
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the 
great day." 2 

If God did not keep angels from falling, we are not con- 
strained to think that he will restore them. If he will here- 
after reinstate them by a direct act of power, the same power 
could have kept them from falling, with no greater interfer- 
ence with their free agency. If he allowed them to fall 
with a view to some great good in their natures, suffering 
them, in the progress of their experience, to ruin this world, 
and bring in such a fearful plague as sin has been to our race, 
all to be compensated for in the great sweep of ages by this 

1 2 Peter ii. 4. 2 Jude 6. 



142 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

beneficial knowledge of evil, we are led to the conclusion that 
sin and suffering are the necessary means of the greatest good. 
But what manner of Supreme Being have we here for a Uni- 
versalist to love and worship ? His government, it would 
seem, cannot proceed without suffering a host of angels, falling 
from their thrones in heaven, to pass through centuries of sin 
and mischief. This seems neither benevolent nor wise. 

In the exercise of their liberty we are told that angels kept 
not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and that 
God hath reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness 
unto the judgment of the great day. If they are finally to 
be restored, God will restore them, or they will come back of 
themselves. If God foresaw that he must finally restore them, 
he would have kept them from falling, unless sin and misery 
are, under his government, the means of the greatest good. 
If so, this may be one of the cases in which if a little is good, 
more is better ; and perhaps the best interests of the universe 
will be promoted by protracting this sin and suffering indefi- 
nitely. 

It is a wholly gratuitous assumption that fallen angels and 
men will at last, of their own accord, repent. Who has trav- 
elled so far as to know this ? What reason have we to think 
that hell will finally convince and persuade men ? All our 
present knowledge respecting it contradicts this expectation. 
Satan and his angels have tried its redeeming power, if it has 
any, for at least six thousand years. We see no premises, 
therefore, on which to base the assertion that men will at last 
universally repent. It does not appear that being in torment, 
even, will have any better effect, forever, on men, than it seems 
to have had on " the rich man," whose only prayer to Abra- 
ham was for mitigation of pain, and for a warning to be sent 
to his brethren. He seems to think that if one went to them 
from tl e dead, they would repent. Why had he not repented 






ENDLESS RETKIBUTION. 143 

himself, among the dead ? Surely the very experience of hell 
itself must be a more powerful means of good than a mere 
apparition. But as suffering had not made him penitent, it 
must be that it has no such effect after death. Hell seems a 
very cruel means of effecting the reformation of sinners, when 
we think that, if employed for this purpose through such great 
periods of punishment, it will be employed by Him who so 
easily converted Saul of Tarsus, and the woman that was a 
sinner, and Zaccheus, and the thief on the cross. This is, to 
my own mind, one of the insuperable objections to the theory 
of future disciplinary punishment. I can readily yield my as- 
sent to the declaration that " he that believeth not the Son 
shall not see life ; " it does no violence to my understanding 
that those who refuse salvation by Christ, when notified that 
their refusal will be fatal, should reap forever that which they 
sowed, and continue hereafter to sow that which they reap, 
and thus without end. I read this in the Bible. I have no 
controversy with it. But that a human soul should need 
ages in hell, with Satan and his angels, to be made contrite, is 
as contrary to all analogy as it is destitute of scriptural proof. 
Besides, if God does all in this world which he can do without 
destroying free agency, to convert certain men, it is difficult to 
see how the use of superior power in hell can fail to destroy 
it utterly. If God does not use all proper means here to save 
men, how is he infinitely merciful ? But if here he goes to 
the very boundaries of their free agency, which, it is said, he 
never passes over, and yet fails to subdue them, it is gratuitous 
to say that he will certainly succeed any better hereafter. 

How much longer than these six thousand years past, an- 
gels are to suffer, we cannot tell; but the consignment of 
wicked men at the last day to such company as that of " the 
devil and his angels," looks fearfully unlike a remedial measure 
for angel or man. 



144 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

The last sentence is utterly inconsistent with any expecta- 
tion, or intention, on the part of Christ, that those on whom it 
is pronounced will return. Otherwise, he would not have pro- 
nounced them cursed. Probationers are not accursed. They 
are prisoners of hope. Every thing in the last words of Christ 
to the wicked is as final as language can make it. 

But if the wicked are to be punished until they repent, we 
say, punishment thus far has not reformed the original inhab- 
itants of hell. It is incumbent on those who advocate final 
restoration on this ground, to prove that punishment will at 
last have a restorative power, or they must show how long 
the wicked must sin and suffer to make it wrong to punish 
them any more, even if they continue to sin. 

IV. The terms used with regard to the resur- 
rection OF THE DEAD, ARE PROOFS OF ENDLESS RETRI- 
BUTION. 

In the " Child's Catechism," by Rev. 0. A. Skinner, I find 
the following : — 1 

" Q. Will sin exist in the resurrection ? 

" A. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot 
inherit the kingdom of God ; neither doth corruption inherit 
incorruption. 2 

" Q. What does the Saviour say respecting our condition 
when raised ? 

" A. Neither can they die any more ; for they are equal 
unto the angels ; and are the children of God, being children 
of the resurrection." 3 

Here, it will be seen, it is assumed that Christ refers to all 
the dead, and that all, when they are raised, will be the chil- 
dren of God. This, it is understood, is the prevailing belief 
of Universalists. 

i Page 24. 2 1 Cor. xv. 50. s Mark xii. 25. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 145 

We read that " no Scripture is of any private interpreta- 
tion ; " in other words, that the meaning must be ascertained 
by comparing the Scriptures one with another. The parallel 
passage in Luke reads, " But they that shall be accounted 
worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection from the 
dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage ; neither can 
they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels ; and 
are the children of God, being the children of the resurrec- 
tion." 1 

Our esteemed friend, Mr. Skinner, it seems to me, is led 
into a mistake by regarding the expression, " children of the 
resurrection," as meaning all who have part in the resurrec- 
tion ; and since Jesus declares " the children of the resur- 
rection " to be synonymous with " children of God," Mr. S. 
naturally concludes that all who rise from the dead will be the 
children of God. 

Now, allowing me, for the sake of the argument, that the 
wicked are raised from the dead in their sins, they are not, in 
the scriptural sense, " children of the resurrection." Rising 
from the dead does not make us " children of the resur- 
rection." Being the offspring of God does not make us the 
" children of God ; " the wicked would not " come forth to 
everlasting life," though coming forth to live forever. The 
term " children of the resurrection," connects w 7 ith itself the 
further idea of being qualified for heaven, — " counted w T orthy 
to obtain that world." This is confirmed, it seems to me, 
beyond all question, by one word of the apostle Paul, " I 
count all things but loss, &c, if by any means 1 might attain 
unto the resurrection of the dead." 2 If, on being raised from 
the dead, all men are to be fit for heaven, Paul need not have 
used such " means" to "attain" to it, nor, indeed, any "means" 
whatever ; for he was sure to be raised, like the rest of man- 

i Luke xx 35, 36. 2 PM1. iii. 8-11. 

13 



146 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

kind. Adopt the interpretation just given, viz., that to be 
accounted worthy to obtain the resurrection from the dead 
includes the idea of a distinguishing fitness for heaven, body 
and soul reunited, and we can see why Paul should say he 
was willing to count all things but loss to attain unto it, — ris- 
ing from the dead with his perfected nature, body and soul 
being, in his view, the consummation of preparedness, in every 
respect, for heaven. If such be Paul's meaning of " attaining 
unto the resurrection of the dead," the wicked, in their sins, 
though raised from the dead, do not attain unto the resurrec- 
tion, and they are not, therefore, in the Saviour's sense, " chil- 
dren of the resurrection." 

The Sadducees had said, "Whose wife shall she be* in the 
resurrection ?" I will paraphrase the reply of Christ accord- 
ing to my interpretation of his words : " It is, of course, no 
use for me to answer your question on the supposition that the 
woman and her seven husbands are not among the saved. 
They that have done evil ' shall come forth,' as I once said, 'to 
the resurrection of damnation.' Conjugal relationships among 
them, or any thing relating to happiness, are not supposable. 
Your inquiry, therefore, relates, of course, to those who are 
supposed to be in a condition to admit of friendly and loving 
relationships. As to them, I say, that being accounted worthy 
to obtain that world, and afterwards such a resurrection as is 
worthy of the name, they stand in no need of earthly joys, 
and as they die no more, the necessity for reproduction ceases ; 
they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, 
being in distinction from the rest of the risen dead, ' children 
of the resurrection.' " 

This meaning of the phrase is also illustrated by the 
expression, " children of this world." Good people are, in 
one sense, " children of this world," equally with the bad ; that 
is, they are natives of this world ; and yet we read, " the 



ENDLESS EETRIBUTION. 147 

children of this world are wiser in their generation than the 
children of light." 

Thus, the good only are "children of the resurrection," 
though all are raised, as the wicked only are " children of this 
world," though bad and good live here together. 

Paul said before Felix, and declared that the Jews " them- 
selves also allow" it, (for the Sadducees were small in number, 
though high in rank and power,) " that there shall be a resur- 
rection of the dead, both of the just and unjust" 1 

The idea advanced by Mr. Skinner and others, that all who 
are raised from the dead are children of God, grows, there- 
fore, out of his mistake, as I view it, in interpreting the ex- 
pression " children of the resurrection " to mean all the risen 
dead. Enough has been said in explanation of the opposite, 
and, as we believe, the more scriptural sense of the phrase. 
It seems to us unaccountable that any should adopt the idea 
that all who are raised from the dead will be the children of 
God, if they have ever read the parables of Christ in Matt. 
xiii. How does he there say it shall be in the end of the 
world ? " So shall it be in the end of the world. The Son of 
man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of 
his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity, 
and shall cast them into a furnace of fire, there shall be wail- 
ing and gnashing of teeth." The same words are repeated at 
the close of the parable of the net. Surely there will be 
some of the risen dead who will not be " children of the resur- 
rection," because they will not be the " children of God." 

I proceed now to the argument to be derived from the 
declarations of Christ in connection with the resurrection. 
Christ said, " The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead 
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear 
shall live." This he said to illustrate his commission to bestow 

l Acts xxiv. 15. 



148 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

spiritnal life on those who are dead in sin. Then he proceeds 
at once to assert a power in confirmation of this, in the way 
of miracle. " Marvel not at this " — (at my power to re- 
generate the soul), "for the hour is coming" (notice that he 
does not here add — " and now is") " when all that are in their 
graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have 
done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done 
evil to the resurrection of damnation." 

" All that are in their graves " includes all who die, from Abel 
to the last victim of death and the grave. " They that have 
done evil," of course, then, are there. Now, it appears that 
they who have done evil will not have atoned, in the interme- 
diate state, for the deeds done in the body, because the Saviour 
says they will come forth " to the resurrection of damnation." 
But some of them will have been for a very long time in the 
separate state. Wherever the rich man went at death, he was 
" in torment ; " there were men before his day, and there 
have been men since his time, who were as wicked as he. 
But can sin be punished " in torment " so long ? Peter tells us 
that there were "spirits" in his day "in prison," to whom Christ 
preached by the Spirit in the days of Noah, — that is at least 
three thousand years before. That is a long time for sin to 
be punished, or even for a sinner to be detained, under the 
government of a good God. Now, these are yet to " come 
forth unto the resurrection of damnation." If sin can be so 
punished by the Infinite Father, and if bodies are to be added 
to these souls, notwithstanding this already protracted experi- 
ence of misery, and if they, body and soul, are at the last day 
to be doomed to " fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," 
on what principles can all this be explained ? Does sin 
merit such punishment, as the Bible declares has already been 
inflicted ? ' Would an earthly parent punish thus ? ' Is there 
not enough, in this ascertained infliction of punishment for sin, 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 149 

to destroy all confidence in the government of God, unless sin 
deserves it all ? And if it deserves all this, we know not how 
much more it may deserve. 

It will be observed, in addition, that Christ does not tell us, 
they that have done evil, but by the power of discipline, shall 
have repented, shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and 
the incorrigible to the resurrection of a further discipline. 
How is this ? Has not the long interval between death and 
the resurrection resulted in the salvation of any ? Strange 
that some of the more hopeful of the wicked should not have 
availed themselves of the opportunity between death and the 
judgment, to confess and repent. 

It is contrary to all analogy that it should be necessary to 
punish men so long before they repent. On the deck, or in 
the rigging, of a burning vessel at sea, when death is abso- 
lutely certain, it is to be presumed that it does not take a 
wicked man very long to decide with what feelings he will 
meet his God. When the soul, after death, finds itself on the 
way to hell, can we suppose that an opportunity to escape, by 
repentance, if it were offered, would be rejected ? If the 
only object of God is to reclaim the sinner, he will release 
him the first moment that he repents. It is so in this world. 
" And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him 
and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and k4ssed 
him." If the soul, at the sight of its punishment, relents and 
agrees to the terms of pardon, does a Universalist believe 
that God will say, " No ; you must suffer in hell for your sins, 
even though you have now repented " ? Would an earthly 
father inflict punishment in such a case? But the Bible 
represents the wicked to have been in hell from the time of 
their death till the resurrection, and at the resurrection they 
must yet come forth " to the resurrection of damnation." It 
is incredible that so much time and so much suffering should 



150 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

be necessary to make sinners repent. Either they repent, and 
God still continues to punish them " ages on ages ; " or they 
do not repent between death and the resurrection, nor at 
the judgment seat of Christ, nor in the immediate prospect 
of going away to the society and the punishment of the devil 
and his angels. If a soul which is finally to be reclaimed, 
can pass through such experience and not repent, it requires 
larger hope and faith than is common to men to expect that 
future punishment can be a means of salvation. 

That the guilt of a finite creature, man or angel, should 
merit thousands of years in hell, or that thousands of years 
should be requisite to bring him to his right mind, no more 
accords with our natural feelings, nor with what we call 
" reason," than does the idea of endless punishment. But if 
the Bible conveys any thing intelligibly to our understanding, 
it teaches that angels and men have been subjected to punish- 
ment for a longer period than is " reasonable " for mere dis- 
cipline. 

Surely, the end of future punishment cannot be merely the 
recovery of the sinner. Were it so, moreover, it would follow 
that sin injures no one but the sinner himself. It violates no 
duties towards God, no interests of fellow-creatures. But the 
law of God refutes this ; the threatenings against those who 
cause others to fall, and the frequent punishment of men who 
made others to sin, prove that the punishment of the sinner 
will have some other end than his reformation. 

It being frequently argued that the sins of a finite creature 
cannot be punished forever, because a finite creature cannot 
merit infinite punishment, it will be enough to meet this, in 
passing, with a single remark, viz. : That, if this be so. then, 
even if the whole universe should sin forever, the whole 
universe cannot be punished forever, because the whole uni- 
verse, after all, is but finit". 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 151 

V. The Scriptures teach that the law of god 

HAS A CURSE : WHICH IT HAS NOT, IP FUTURE PUNISH- 
MENT BE DISCIPLINARY. 

The punishment, however long and severe, which shall 
result in restoring a soul to holiness and an endless heaven, 
under the kind and faithful administration of its heavenly 
Father, it would be unsuitable to call " a curse." The theory 
of Restorationists is, that mercy, having failed to recover sin- 
ners in this world, will go on hereafter, in the same direction, 
with more vigorous methods, till it succeeds, — the same un- 
dying, unfaltering love pursuing the wanderer, which here 
never ceased to plead. Hereafter it will mingle stronger in- 
gredients, and cure the disease of sin. "What " curse " there is 
in such loving kindness, it is hard to see. In this world we 
experience just this treatment, — 

" Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes , 
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in ; " 

and sometimes all the waves and billows go over us. Men 
are stripped of property, family, health, reputation, and finally 
they turn to the hand that smites them, grateful that God did 
not spare the rod for their crying ; and they testify that through 
the loss of all things they have gained eternal bliss. Do they 
call their afflictions their " curse " ? Have they suffered " the 
curse of the law " ? All the ordinary medicines having failed, 
the physician brings some extreme remedy and saves the pa- 
tient. Was that a " curse " ? He amputates the limb, and 
thus prolongs a precious life. Did he " curse " the man, in 
doing so? W r e must, therefore, expunge large parts of the 
Bible, if future punishment be only a wholesome discipline. 
" Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us." No, he has only redeemed us from a 
further dispensation of infinite mercy, if punishment be only. 



152 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

for discipline ; indeed, he prevents the bestowment of a greater 
proof of love than he himself gave us in dying on the cross ; 
for if after all his love for us. he will persist in disciplining us 
in hell, willing to see us suffer that he may finally save us, 
u herein is love." The cross is not the climax of his love, but 
the lake of fire. How it is in any sense a curse, we fail to see 
Christians here never look upon the means of sanctification as 
" the curse of the law." The sinner who by the severest dis- 
cipline is brought to Christ, feels that he thereby escapes M the 
curse of the law." But we cannot find that curse, neither here 
nor hereafter, unless there be punishment which is not intended 
for the recovery of the sinner. 

VI. The sentence passed upon the wicked indis- 
criminately, FORBIDS THE IDEA OF DISCIPLINE IN FU- 
TURE PUNISHMENT. 

Among the impenitent at death and in eternity, there is, of 
course, great variety of character. If the object of future pun- 
ishment be to reclaim them, the wise and considerate methods 
of earthly discipline seem to be utterly discarded after death. 
"We hardly need to be reminded how indiscriminate are the 
threatenings which are said to be inflicted on the wicked. The 
last sentence evidently regards none of them as probationers ; 
there is no forbearance in it towards the more hopeful ; they 
are all addressed as " ye cursed." TTe are considering the 
testimony of the Scriptures. "What evidence do they afford 
of any discrimination in the treatment of the finally impenitent, 
notwithstanding the vast variety which must exist among 
them ? I answer, Not any. But the following passages, among 
others, teach plainly that the doom of the wicked will be indis- 
criminate, without regard to hopeful diversities of character. 

" And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before (rod, 
£nd the books were opened, and another book was opened, 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 153 

which is the book of life ; and the dead were judged out of the 
things which were written in the book, according to their 
works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and 
death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them ; 
and they were judged every man according to their works." 
Then follows this declaration : "And death and hell were cast 
into the lake of fire. This is the second death." Some say, 
death and hell are annihilated. But this is not the idea in- 
tended, unless the wicked also are then to be annihilated ; for 
the next verse, concluding the subject, says, " And whosoever 
was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake 
of fire." The obvious meaning is, Death and hell, whatever 
they represent, will then be added to the lake of fire, whatever 
that is, as new ingredients, and to constitute " the second 
death," and as a final gathering together of all the elements 
of sorrow and pain, with all the wicked, into one place. With 
this passage agree the words of Daniel : " And many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever- 
lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt." 
The parables of Christ relating to the end of the world recog- 
nize only two great divisions of men at the last day. Wheat 
and tares only are to be in the " field ; " good and bad only, in 
the " net." The wheat is saved, the tares are burned ; " the 
good " in the net are gathered into vessels ; " the bad " are 
none of them dismissed for amendment, or growth, but are 
" cast away." And Christ tells us that every human being 
will stand at his right hand, or left hand, "blessed," or 
" cursed." 

Now, when we call to mind the justice of God, and reflect 
that undue severity, or the laying on man more than is meet, 
would alienate the confidence of the good from the Most High, 
and when we consider the declaration of Christ, that sins of 
ignorance shall receive but " few stripes," and we still perceive 



154 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

that the human race are evidently to fall at last into two divis- 
ions, which will include the whole, with their countless diver- 
sities and degrees as to character in each division, we infer that 
no provision is made for a more hopeful class to enjoy a further 
trial. All upon the left hand are doomed alike. If there is 
to be a new probation after death, the Bible surely does not 
teach it. 

VII. The duration of future punishment is ex- 
pressed in the New Testament by the terms employed 
to denote absolute eternity. 

There is, we all admit, such a thing as forever. If the Bible 
speaks of the natural attributes of God, his eternity is of course 
brought to view, and there must be a term, or terms, to convey 
the idea. 

Now it is apparent to all, that the words eternal, everlasting, 
forever, never of themselves signify a limited duration. No 
one ever learns from these words that the duration to which 
they refer is less than infinite. The idea of limitation, if it be 
obtained, always is derived from the context. 

It is moreover true, beyond the possibility of dispute, that 
the words eternal, everlasting, and forever, always mean the 
whole of something. There is no instance in which they are 
used to denote a part of a thing's duration. It is always the 
entire period for which that thing is to last. This no one will 
call in question. 

It is well understood that the words " forever," and " ever- 
lasting," are used to express a duration commensurate with 
the nature of the thing spoken of. " Everlasting mountains," 
are coeval with creation, and are to endure as long as the 
earth. " A servant forever," is a servant for life. We can- 
not take the sense which the word has in connection with a 
certain thing, and by it prove or disprove any thing relating 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 155 

to a totally different thing. We cannot prove, for example, 
that mountains will not last to the end of time, because for- 
ever, applied to a servant, means only for life. We must con- 
sider the nature of the object to which the word is applied. 
When it is applied to the Most High, of course it means un- 
limited duration. Now the words which convey the idea of 
absolute eternity are applied, for example, to mountains, and 
',o future punishment, and to the being and government of 
God. This, then, is certain : Because forever, when applied 
to some things, does not mean absolute eternity, it does not 
follow that it does not mean eternity when applied to future 
retribution. If it were so, we could not convey the idea of 
the eternity of God ; for it could be said that forever is some- 
times applied to a limited duration. That is true ; now if this 
proves that future punishment is not forever, it must also 
prove that the being of God is not forever. 

Two things are beyond dispute : 1. Forever and everlast- 
ing are applied to future retributions. 2. These terms always 
mean the whole, as to duration, of that with which they stand 
connected. If applied to life, it is the whole of life ; if to the 
existence of the world, it is the entire period of its existence ; 
if to a covenant, the covenant is either without limit as to 
time, or it is the whole of the duration which the subject per- 
mits ; and when applied to Jehovah, it refers to his whole 
eternity. 

What, then, does it mean, when applied to future retribu- 
tion ? It always means the whole of something. Is it the 
whole of future existence ? No one can base a denial of it on 
the ground that the word, when applied to human life, means 
only a few years, or a limited duration when applied to the 
earth. For, how is it when applied to God and the happi- 
ness of heaven ? It is certainly the place of any who deny 
endless retributions, to show that the words cannot mean the 



156 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

whole of future existence when applied to punishment. The 
words mean the whole of future existence when applied, by 
the use of the same Greek words in the same passages, to the 
happiness of the righteous. The objector must show that 
when applied to the future life, they mean only a part of it, 
notwithstanding they always mean (tie whole of every thing 
else with which they stand connected. 

Such are some of the considerations, drawn trom the word 
of God, which satisfy my own mind that retributions after 
death are without end. Mr. Foster speaks of it as " the gen- 
eral, not very far short of universal, judgment of divines." 
Such multitudes of the best of men and women are still firmly 
persuaded of its truth, that we are led to say, there must be 
a foundation for it in the word of God, — and for this reason : 
If mankind could have divested themselves of the conviction 
that it is not found in the word of God, it is reasonable to 
think that it would long since have been discarded. Nay, 
rather who would have invented such a doctrine ? Good men 
would not have palmed it upon the world, for more reasons 
than one. Besides, many an error has been exploded ; it is 
unaccountable, if this be error, that it should have kept its 
hold upon the human mind. No Protestant, it would seem, 
would quote a belief in purgatory as a parallel case. "We 
have no coercion, nor any kind of motive to bias our minds 
towards this article of faith. We use no terms on this subject, 
— certainly we approve of none, which are not derived from 
the Bible. We are not superstitious, nor fanatical, nor priest- 
ridden, nor cruel ; and we think we have far more exalted 
reasons for believing in the infinite love of God than any have 
who do not see it, as we do, in the atoning cross. However 
good and amiable the opposers of this doctrine may be, they 
will not assume that they are more humane, more pitiful, 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 157 

more gentle, more the friends of God and man, than those who 
believe it. In view of the hold which it has on the minds of 
men, it would be so great a marvel that the doctrine should not 
be found in the Scriptures, that nothing could be more astound- 
ing, not even the fearful truth itself. 

And that it may be s«en, further, how we are confirmed in 
our persuasion that we read the Bible aright, I refer not only, 
as above, to the convictions of believers that the doctrine is 
scriptural, but to the positive statements of some who have 
rejected it. 

Mr. Foster tells us, " And the language of Scripture is 
formidably strong, — so strong that it must be an argument of 
extreme cogency that would authorize a limited interpreta- 
tion." 

Dr. Thomas Burnett, an English divine, writing in favor of 
final restoration, says, " Human nature revolts from the very 
name of future punishment. But the sacred Scriptures seem 
to be on the other side." 1 

One effect of the recent discussion of this subject in this 
city has been to elicit from a distinguished advocate of final 
restoration, the following statement : — 

" And yet I freely say that I do not find the doctrine of the 
ultimate salvation of all souls clearly stated in any text or in 
any discourse that has ever been reported from the lips of • 
Christ. I do not think that we can fairly maintain that the 
final restoration of all men is a prominent and explicit doc- 
trine of the four gospels." 2 

To this, I am able to add the explicit testimony of Rev. 
Theodore Parker. Wishing to verify a quotation which a 

1 " Natura humana abhorret ab ipso nomine paenarum seternarum. At 
Scriptura sacra a partibus contrariis stare videtur." — De Statu Mort. et Re 
surg., p. 228, 2d ed. 

2 Rev. T. S. King's Two Discourses, p. 5. 

14 



158 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENTS. 

friend had tried in vain to find for me in one of Mr. Parker's 
volumes, I addressed a note to Mr. P., asking him to give me 
the reference. The following polite and obliging answer will 
speak for itself. All the Italics are Mr. P.'s. 

• " Boston, Dec. 1, 1858. 
" Rev. Dr. Adams, 

"Dear Sir, — I am ill now, and cannot recollect that the 
passage you refer to occurs in any of my volumes; yet it 
might, in several. I am sure it does in some printed sermons 

— pamphlets, but cannot now say which. I will try to find 
the passage. 

" To me it is quite clear that Jesus taught the doctrine of 
eternal damnation, if the Evangelists — the first three I mean, 

— are to be treated as inspired. I can understand his lan- 
guage in no other way. But as the Protestant sects start with 
the notion — which to me is a monstrous one — that the words 
of the New Testament are all miraculously inspired by God, 
and so infallibly true ; and as this doctrine of eternal damna- 
tion is so revolting to all the humane and moral feelings of 
our nature, men said 'the words must be interpreted in 
another way/ So as the Unitarians have misinterpreted the 
New Testament to prove that the Christos of the fourth 
gospel had no preexistence, the Universalists misinterpreted 
other passages of the gospels to show that Jesus of Nazareth 
never taught eternal damnation. So the geologists misinter- 
pret Genesis to-day — to save the divine infallible character 
of the text. 

"Yours truly, Theodore Parker." 

It was but fair to let Mr. P. state his whole belief on this 
subject. Thus, in his view, if the Evangelists are to be 
believed, Christ taught that future retributions are to be 
endless. 






ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 159 

There is nothing to be surprised at in this ; but it will 
be seen that it is not without good reason that those who 
receive the Bible implicitly as the word of God have so 
generally believed in endless retribution as a doctrine of 
Scripture. , 

The question then arises, whether our human instincts, 
or divine revelation, whether man the sinner, or God the 
sovereign, shall dictate the penalty of sin ? Mr. Foster, 
seeking relief to his mind from the terrible idea of endless 
sin and misery, says of the doctrine of the annihilation 
of the wicked, " It would be a prodigious relief." Some 
one respectfully replies to him that " the divine government 
is not for the relief of the imagination, but for the relief 
of the universe." 

The question is often asked, How, allowing endless retri- 
bution to be a scriptural doctrine, can you have peace of 
mind in your belief? 

I answer, We believe that no one will perish who does 
not reject the Saviour of the world; or, if he be a heathen, 
does not sin against light and conviction sufficient to save 
him. 

It has an effect to quiet our minds when we reflect that 
our thoughts and feelings at the loss of the soul were surpassed 
in Him whose soul for us was exceeding sorrowful, even unto 
death. Tears were shed by him over sinners — " God hath 
laid on him the iniquity of us all." If the thought of end- 
less retribution is so terrible to us who know so little about 
it, we are constrained to think that there was never any 
sorrow like unto the sorrow of him, who loved us and gave 
himself for us, when he sees that he must, nevertheless, 
pronounce upon any for whom he died, the sentence of 
that everlasting punishment from which he became incar- 
nate, and died to save us. Great as our astonishment and 
5 



160 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

sorrow are, we cannot forget that they are infinitely less 
than his. If, through grace, we are saved, we look to him, 
who knows what his own tears have been, to wipe away 
all tears from our eyes. 

We also- consider that the basis of future punishment 
is a chosen and cherished state of mind, which leads men 
here to reject Christ, notwithstanding his known character 
and his efforts for them. This may lead them still to reject 
him; for, as already stated, we do not find that even the 
loss of heaven and the experience of chains under darkness, 
have reconciled lost angels to God. While they choose to 
sin, therefore, we see no injustice in their being punished, 
even if they sin forever. 

That the Bible contains forewarnings and instructions 
which ought to be sufficient to deter men from future misery, 
we learn even from the reply of Abraham to the rich man 
in hell. The rich man desired that Lazarus might be sent 
to his father's house with testimony concerning that " place 
of torment." Abraham replied, that " they have Moses and 
the prophets, let them hear them." The rich man could have 
easily reminded Abraham, if truth permitted, that there is 
nothing about that place in the Old Testament. He makes 
no such answer, but pleads the supposed efficacy of a visitor 
from the unseen world. Abraham replied, that such a visitor 
could have no effect on those who do not believe the testi- 
mony of the Old Testament on that subject. All this is 
from the lips of Jesus Christ. 

Inasmuch as we cast no blame on God for the present 
condition and conduct of cannibals, and pagans, and atheists, 
and blasphemers, and slave traders, and every other descrip- 
tion of wicked men, (neither do they themselves impute blame 
to him,) we do not feel that God will be responsible for the 
endless wickedness and misery of sinners; nor will they 
charge him with injustice more than they now do. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 161 

We believe that the God of the New Testament is the 
same unchangeable God of the Old Testament ; that Christ 
has not modified the divine character nor altered one prin- 
ciple of the divine administration; but that the New Tes- 
tament reveals the mercy of God in full orbed beauty, 
though its outlines were always visible from the beginning ; 
that all which was terrible in the God who destroyed the 
old world, and Sodom and Gomorrha, and cast down rebel 
angels from heaven to hell, is still the same, and that when 
mercy has failed under the New Testament to recover sin- 
ners, the God of the Old Testament and of the New will 
be their Judge and King. We read that " it is a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God." — " For our 
God is a consuming fire." And we have our choice, to love 
and serve such a God as this, or to reject him and take the 
consequences. Our private experience persuades us that 
He is good. He has always been just and kind, gentle, 
easy to be entreated. In all our afflictions he was afflicted, 
and the angel of his presence saved us. Knowing this, his 
stern, uncompromising hatred of sin, his power to inflict 
suffering and to look upon it forever, if necessary, give us 
confidence in Him. We may need such attributes for the 
foundation of our safety and of our confidence in God, as 
much as that attribute which we now separate from the 
rest of his character and call his love. 

We believe that the Bible teaches, — for surely it follows 
of course from all which has now been adduced, that some 
proportion of pain and misery will forever exist under the 
government of God. The idea that they are to be wholly ex- 
purgated is contradicted by the Scriptures, and is mere fancy. 
But the scale of things being hereafter enlarged to our appre- 
hension, and the reasons for one thing and another which are 
now but partially explained, being more fully apparent, we 
14* 



162 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

think we see in the present feelings of good citizens with re- 
gard to law, and punishments, and the officers of justice, how 
future pain and misery, in their relation to the infinitely blessed 
system of government over a universe of free agents, will by 
no means diminish the happiness of that multitude of obedient 
souls which no man can number. 

I have always been struck by the consideration, that the 
passages from which Universalists infer the final happiness of 
all men, do not occur in the Bible in connection with the pun- 
ishment of the wicked. This is of the utmost importance. It 
is one presumptive proof that, occurring as they do apart from 
any mention of the punishment of the wicked, they belong to 
other subjects. And so we find them, in connection with the 
blessedness of the righteous, the ultimate victories of Christ 
over his enemies, his final reign, and the happiness of heaven. 
But we look in vain for passages where promises, prophecies, 
hints of ultimate restoration, occur in connection with the sub- 
ject of future punishment. It will not be disputed that there 
are passages which seem to teach future, endless punishment ; 
and the attempt is to show that they are " metaphorical." But 
some appear to think that " metaphorical " means "fictitious" 
" unreal ; " on the contrary, " metaphorical " language is gen- 
erally the stronger way of asserting any thing, being resorted 
to for the purpose of intensifying the expression. But how 
remarkable it is that we find no clause nor phrase, neither 
literal, nor " metaphorical," limiting the main drift of a pas- 
sage which speaks of future, endless punishment, or suggest- 
ing the idea of restoration. The bold, terrific language of 
Scripture, asserting the future punishment of the wicked, has 
not one word of qualification. 

We frequently meet with such representations and illustra- 
tions as the following, in modern writers, — from whom I had 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 163 

intended to quote several passages ; but the following state- 
ment of their views will suffice : The soul is God's child. 
Will a good mother ever cast away her offspring ? No, neither 
will the great " Mother of us all," — the love of God. The 
worst of men — the Judases, the Neros, and Caligulas, will at 
last fulfil their career of sin and sorrow, and return to the 
bosom of God. As the earth in some parts of its orbit drives 
away from the sun, but soon comes " rounding back again," so 
every creature that God ever made, Satan and all, (if there 
be any Satan,) will at last accomplish its terrible career, and, 
passing its solstice, rejoice in a new moral existence. 

The brief reply to all such fancies, is this : Have we a 
Bible ? Does it give us any intimation of such a revolution, 
such an orbit, for the lost soul ? We read of " wandering 
stars, to whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever and 
ever ; " but where does the Bible, in speaking of the spirit 
launching forth on its aphelion, intimate that its path is a cycle, 
and not a straight line ? 

We see one part of the race " go away into everlasting pun- 
ishment." But this is said to be merely " a metaphor." We 
will be grateful even for " a metaphor," if there be any, rep- 
resenting their return. 

We have lately been furnished, from high authority in the 
Universalist denomination, with some of the principal proof 
texts in the discourses of Christ in favor of the salvation of all. 
men. They occur in an article in the Universalist Quarterly, 
for October, 1858, written by Rev. Dr. Thomas Whittemore, 
in which he endeavors to answer Rev. T. S. King's assertion, 
that he could not find any text or discourse of Christ which 
contains the doctrine of the final happiness of all men. Dr. 
Whittemore, of course, would here bring forth some of his 
strong proofs, for he says of Mr. King's discourse, " We think 
5* 



164 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

they will do as much to break down Universalism as to break 
down the doctrine of endless misery." The following are Dr. 
Whittemore's quotations from the words of Christ, to prove 
that he taught the final salvation of all men. 

1. "This is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world." 1 
Dr. Whittemore gives an extended exposition of the discourse 
of Christ at the well of Samaria, which gave occasion to these 
words of the Samaritans ; and he says, " Jesus Christ, let it 
be remembered, is declared to be the Saviour of the world ; 
and how could he be justly called the Saviour of the world if 
the world shall never be saved ? " 2 

2. " All things are delivered unto me of my Father." This 
is a major premise. " All that the Father hath given me shall 
come to me," is the minor premise. " To come to Christ is to 
become a Christian." 3 This involves the ergo of the propo- 
sition. — He adds, " We have by no means exhausted our 
proof," 4 and he gives us 

3. " And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all 
men unto me." We have the word of Christ for it, — ' will 
draw all men unto me.' " 5 

4 "Jesus answered, Ye do err, not knowing the Scrip- 
tures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection, they 
neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels 
of God in heaven." " If angels are holy, mankind are to be 
holy ; if angels are to be happy, mankind are to be happy." 
" This is a distinct and positive declaration of the purity and 
happiness of all men." " How, then," Dr. W. says, " can we 
adopt the language of Mr. King, and say, ' I do not find the 
doctrine,' &c. Strange declaration ! Jesus joined two great 
facts together, the resurrection of all men, and their exaltation 
to the condition of angels." 6 

1 John iv. 42. s p . 391. 5 p. 395. 

2 p. 390. * p. 392. 6 p. 395. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 165 

Such passages are, in the opinion of Dr. Whittemore, a 
plain, obvious refutation, from Christ himself, of that, in Dr. 
Whittemore's view, dangerous assertion by Mr. King, viz., 
"the ultimate salvation of all souls is not clearly taught in 
any text or discourse in the gospels." 

The principal topics which have now been considered are 
these : — 

The Scriptures reveal a future state of reward and punish- 
ment. 

They teach that the body and soul will be joined in future 
happiness and misery. 

Christ teaches that God can destroy both body and soul in 
hell. If God cannot morally do this, the declaration is un- 
intelligible ; it answers no purpose of instruction. 

Future punishment will therefore be a natural operation of 
moral laws, sustained and made effectual by the hand of 
God upon the sinner, who, by his state of depravity, will be 
made susceptible to misery forever. 

The essential elements of misery remain in the wicked after 
death. 

Eedemption by Christ is represented as having for its ob- 
ject salvation from final perdition. 

The work of the Holy Spirit as a part of redemption, and 
the unpardonable sin against Him, prove that the present is 
the final effort to save men. 

None of the passages relied on to prove final restoration 
occur in connection with the subject of future punishment, 
but with the reign of Christ, and the happiness of the right- 
eous. 

No passage in the Bible discloses the future repentance of 
the wicked. 

Promises of restoration, made to sinners who in this world 



166 SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENT. 

were to become penitent, always occur in connection with 
threatening^ and doom. No such promises are made in con- 
nection with the threatenings of future punishment, or with 
the final doom of the wicked. 

The Bible closes with an express declaration of the future 
unchangeableness of character. 

There are no prophetic visions in the New Testament 
which contemplate deliverance from hell, and corresponding to 
visions of God's ancient people in captivity, and of their release 
and restoration. 

The fall of angels, and of man, is a confirmatory argument 
in favor of future punishment, seeing that if God did not keep 
them from falling, he can consistently refuse to restore them. 

The terms used with regard to the resurrection of the dead, 
show, that the wicked will have experienced no change since 
death, but will come forth from their graves to the resurrec- 
tion of damnation. 

If the wicked are punished hereafter merely for their own 
good, there is no such thing as sin against God or our neigh- 
bor ; — which is contrary to Scripture. 

The law of God has no curse if future punishment be in all 
cases disciplinary. 

The sentence passed upon the impenitent indiscriminately, 
forbids the idea of discipline in future punishment. 

It is inconceivable that fallen angels and " the spirits in 
prison," w T ho were on earth " in the days of Noah," should 
not long ago have repented of their sins, if repentance were 
the object sought by their punishment. 

If death, and the scenes within the veil previous to the judg- 
ment day, do not effect the repentance in the wicked, there is 
no ground to think that their banishment from Christ with the 
fallen angels, at the last day, is intended for their reformation, 
or would effect it. 



ENDLESS RETRIBUTION. 167 

cc Forever " and " everlasting " always denote the ivhole, 
as to duration, of that with which they stand connected. 

If a finite being cannot justly be punished forever, then, if 
the whole universe should sin forever it could not be pun- 
ished forever, because the whole intelligent universe also is 
finite. 

The duration of future punishment is expressed in the 
New Testament by the terms employed to denote absolute 
eternity in cases which are never questioned. 

The provision made in the incarnation, sufferings, and death 
of the Son of God for pardon and salvation, and the abun- 
dant calls to repentance, and offers of eternal life, through 
Christ, to all, will make the final impenitence of sinners inex- 
cusable, and their misery will be of their own procuring. 



REASONABLENESS 



OF 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 



FOR THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH. 

— Rom. vi. 23. 

Let us endeavor to think how it would be with us, should 
it come to pass, as the fool in his heart wishes it to be, that 
there is no God ; that God is dethroned. Some disaster has 
happened in the universe, and rival spirits, we will suppose, 
have triumphed. Malignity has supplanted benevolence ; 
wickedness is enthroned over virtue ; chance does not rule, 
but the government of all worlds is in the hands of the en- 
emies of God. Prayer now is useless ; public worship may 
as well cease. Bibles are like old books of history, and 
nothing more, for the promises of the Bible are now like 
irredeemable bills. Repentance and faith are useless. The 
deity to whom this world has fallen by lot is Mammon, or 
Moloch ; or it may be that Satan himself, out of spite for all 
which he has suffered here, takes it under his charge. Every 
thing now is perverted; darkness is put for light, evil for 
good, bitter for sweet. The strongest must rule ; to get all 
he can, by all means, is the governing principle of every 
man ; no rights are respected ; Virtue is driven out of the 
world ; her defences and her great reward have perished. 
Every whire we are assailed with the sight of these words, 
and with this cry : No God ! No God ! Whether the 
15 (169) 



170 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

devils have power to control the elements and rule the heav 
enly bodies, or whether all things will rush to ruin, is a fear 
ful question, which every day and hour appals the stouten 
heart. For, instead of One, Almighty, Supreme Being, whc 
can say, as formerly, " I am God, and there is none else," and 
instead of that unity of purpose, and independent will, and 
unrivalled might, which governed the universe safely and 
happily, a band of devils, we suppose, is at the head of affairs, 
the superior demon holding his sway by force over the rest, 
or by their assent; but no unity of purpose, or perma- 
nence, can be expected in things controlled by hateful and 
hating creatures. We look up to the heavens ; they no 
longer " declare the glory of God," but telegraph his discom- 
fiture. As one says, — 

"What were the universe without a God? 
A mob of worlds, careering round the sky." 

Law every where would be likely to be mob law. If we 
could, by armies and any sacrifice of treasure and blood, rein- 
state Jehovah in his throne, our own self-interest, and sense 
of justice, and outraged feelings, would impel us to any and 
every effort to drive Satan and his hosts from heaven, and 
shut them up in hell as long as they should continue rebel- 
lious ; and the return of the day when God Almighty should 
resume his peaceful reign in the armies of heaven, and among 
the inhabitants of the earth, would be a jubilee. But alas ! 
if the almighty arm, so called, could not prevail against his 
enemies, how could mortals help him? Let it once be that 
usurpers have the throne of God, and annihilation would be 
coveted by every one of us more eagerly than any despairing 
suicide ever yet longed to prove or to find it true. 

Every one of us has done his part to bring about this state 
of things. Should the natural feelings and conduct of each 



171 



of js be extended indefinitely, all this would virtually hap- 
pen. There might be more refinement in wickedness in some 
places than in others, to suit the tastes and habits of different 
people ; but Greece and Rome, the models of ancient cultiva- 
tion and refinement, are, with " the whole world lying in wick- 
edness," described by an unerring pen in the first chapter of 
Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and in terms which make every 
reader blush with shame at human nature. Its degeneracy 
and corruption, from Cain to the days of the Canaanites, and 
ever since, when unrestrained by the grace of God, have been 
such that nation after nation made it necessary for God to 
wipe them out of existence, " as a man wipeth a dish, wiping 
it and turning it upside down." 1 Volney surveys the 
" ruins of empires," and mourns, saying, " To what purpose 
is this waste ? " and he impeaches the wisdom of his God. 
He will not consider that sin is the procuring cause of na- 
tional, as it is of individual ruin, and that God has but ful- 
filled the threatening, " The nation and kingdom that will 
not serve thee shall perish ; yea, those nations shall be utterly 
wasted." 2 " Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel." 3 

Sin is the antagonist of God. If sin prevails, there is " no 
God." For wherever, even upon a small scale, sin prevails, 
God is banished. Let its power be supreme, and practically 
there is no God. 

Where is sin ? Who ever saw it ? Where is its habita- 
tion ? Sin exists nowhere but in free, intelligent creatures. 
There is no sin separate from a sinner. Whoever, therefore, 
is a sinner, is sin impersonated. In the greatest measure, we 
suppose, sin exists in Satan ; then in his companions ; then in 
lost men , then in living men. " The carnal mind is enmity 
against God." If we say, The Asiatic cholera is in Boston, 

i 2 Kings xxi. 13. 2 Is. lx. 12. a Ps. ii. 9. 



172 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

we mean that there are those here who have the cholera. 
There is no sin but in the hearts of fallen spirits and men. 

There is not one of us who, when placed in circumstances 
where God and his requirements or prohibitions came in 
conflict with our wishes, has not fought against God. This 
is no more than the powers of hell would do on a larger 
scale, if they had the opportunity. 

The difference is this : There is a plague, w T e will say, in 
London, wluVh is cutting down a thousand in a day. Men 
think and speak of it as an awful scourge. But you are at 
Bath, or Carlisle, sick with the plague, alone, and you are 
ready to die. There is no difference between your plague 
and the plague in London. All the symptoms which the 
thousand victims in London have, you exhibit ; but you are 
not in a community where the disease is triumphant. But it 
is killing you ; it does no more in London, only that it has 
gained the upper hand, and puts the inhabitants to flight. 

In like manner, sin, disobedience to God, and the dislike of 
him from w r hich it springs, is the same in substance every 
where. If we dislike God, his attributes, his requirements, 
his prohibitions, and if infinite mischief is not the consequence, 
it is because our influence is hemmed in and overruled ; just 
as we might have a contagious disorder, and yet such 
preventives be employed as would keep it from doing much 
harm. 

Though sin has not extended in the universe so far as to 
dethrone God, we have most perfect illustrations of its awful 
power. 

There was a time when all the sin which was in the world 
was enclosed in one sinful wish in the breast of one woman. 
She 1 ad permission to eat of every tree but one, and that one 
God prohibited, saying, " In the day thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die." A transient thought, immediately repressed 



FUTURE , ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 173 

or disapproved, would not have been sin; for, as Milton 

says, 

" Evil into the mind of God or man 
May come and go, so unapproved, and leave 
No spot or blame behind; " l 

but she indulged that wish, and hankered after that fruit ; and 
in that sinful wish all the sin of earth once lay. That wish 
became an act ; and now let him who would write the sins and 
woes of earth first count for us the snow flakes of five thou- 
sand winters, and tell us the number of drops in all the rivers 
and oceans. " By one man's disobedience many were made 
sinners ; " and their history is the history of wars, lust, intem- 
perance, violence. sin ! what hast thou done ? What 
canst thou not do ? 

There is another illustration still more affecting. We see 
a company of evil spirits whom Christ is casting out of two 
men. They hold a conversation with the Saviour. If they 
are mere diseases, and not intelligent creatures capable of 
reasoning, but are only personified maladies, who are making 
a truce with Christ, and if he countenances the delusion that 
this scene is not even so real a thing as a masquerade, but a 
fiction throughout, while questions are put and answers given, 
requests made and permission granted, there is an end to all 
confidence in language, and indeed the reality of every thing 
may be questioned. " And they besought him that he would 
not command them to go out into the deep." 2 They did not 
mean the sea, for thither they soon went of their own choice. 
The same word, in Rev. xx. 3, is translated " bottomless pit." 
They are called " evil spirits." But if they were intelligent 
creatures, they were fallen creatures ; for we suppose that 
God would not create a demon ; and allowing even that they 
were the souls of lost men, or an order of beings who came 

i Par. Lost, B. v. 1. 117. 2 Luke viii. 31. 

15* 



174 THE REASONABLENESS OP 

into existence, as we did, with a fallen nature, probation must 
have been allotted to them — a chance to, be saved; for we 
shall agree that no infant, nor any other being, can be lost 
merely for having a fallen nature. These fallen spirits, then, 
were once surrounded by virtuous influences ; they may have 
been angels ; and if they were, nay, even if they sang to- 
gether with other morning stars, and shouted for joy with all 
the sons of God, at the birth of the world, they fell no fur- 
ther, comparatively, than the sons or daughters of men have 
fallen here, from homes of purity and circles of refinement, 
from~pulpits and the table of Christ. " So the devils besought 
him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into 
the herd of swine." * O sin, what hast thou done ? This whole 
legion of devils, moreover, had taken possession of two poor 
creatures, and made them maniacs " exceeding fierce." Why 
should more than one malignant spirit wish to possess one 
human body ? What mysteries there are in sin, and 
" depths of Satan " ! 

The difference between sin as it existed in these demons 
and as it exists in our breasts, is the same as between the 
loathsome victim of the plague, and the man who is just 
taken sick with it. There was a time when angels in 
heaven, who, the Bible tells us, were " cast down to hell, 
and delivered into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto 
judgment," 2 were but just infected with this malady of sin. 
There was a time when Eve was but just attacked with it. 
We are in the early stage of the disorder ; but we have it, 
and if no remedy be applied, time only is wanted to make us 
desperate. If placed in circumstances where we could com- 
municate the infection to unfallen creatures, like Eve to 
Adam, and thus to a race, God only can measure the conse- 
quences. Many a human spirit, if not redeemed from its 

1 Matt. viii. 31. 2 2 Petey- ii. 4. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 175 

sins, the child now sleeping in its cradle, is capable, in the 
progress of its being, of going forth to tempt and ruin some 
fair world, and to become the " prince of the power of the 
air " to that fallen province of God's empire, and to rival the 
arch apostate angel in his direful history. 

Is this tremendous thing in us — this antagonism to God ? 
this enemy to the universe ? If so, what is it ? 

" Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the 
law of God." * The sum of all which God requires of man, 
and prohibits, is comprehended in the ten commandments, 
every one of which, in thought, word, or deed, we have 
broken. The Saviour gives us a still more simple summary 
of our duty : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and 
with all thy strength ; " and " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as 
thyself." 2 We have failed to do this ; we love and serve the 
creature more than the Creator. Do we avoid that which 
God disapproves ? Do we study to do that which he loves ? 
If we have a family, do we call them together morning and 
night, and read to them out of God's word, and before them 
bow the knee to God ? Is it natural to do this ? If not, do 
we give evidence that we love God? His blessings we 
highly prize ; his natural attributes we are ready to adore ; 
but God, with the moral attributes which the Bible ascribes to 
him, we do not love. On the contrary, we have feelings and 
thoughts, and we do things, which are " enmity against God," 3 
and, carried out into other situations, and exasperated by 
opposition to our wills, and their influence being sufficiently 
extended, they would supplant his throne. 

If we were in the place of God, we may imagine how we 
would regard sin. He comprehends the interests of all Intel* 

1 Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, 14. 

9 Mark xii. 30, 31. 3 Rom. viii. 7. 



176 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

ligent beings, and sees that sin is fatal to his government over 
them, so that, wherever sin reigns, there, and in that propor- 
tion, there is no God. It would be better that the universe 
should perish than that harm should come to the infinite God , 
but sin would not only destroy the universe ; for, if it could 
prevail, it would dethrone God. Let us place ourselves 
where we could see and feel what sin would do if it were 
aimed against us^and our authority, and the happiness of a 
universe for whose welfare we were responsible. How would 
we legislate about that which would inevitably ruin other 
worlds and races, as it has ours ? What would we do to pre- 
vent it, and to reform and save the rebellious ? Should we 
do any thing ? We will take it for granted that we would. 

But human wisdom and earthly love could not do more than 
God has done to save sinners. In the threefold distinction of 
the divine nature, we hold there is that which is called " the 
Word," which " was in the beginning with God," and which 
" was God." 1 Then, seemingly guarding against the Sabellian 
theory of " manifestation," it is said again, " The same was in 
the beginning with God ;. " not therefore God filling a human 
body and soul with influence, and so making a mere demon- 
stration of divinity, but it was the Word, who was not only 
God, but ("great is the mystery") "with God," indicating 
both union and distinctness. He became flesh, and dwelt 
among us. 

His great object was to take the sinner's place as a sacri- 
fice for sins. He did not interpose between a wrathful being 
and his victims. For the sake, perhaps, of keeping up in the 
human mind the idea of Deity unmixed with our nature, the 
Father is familiarly called " God," and yet as often " God the 
Father," which word " Father " would be, in numerous in- 
stances, an unwarrantable pleonasm, if " our heavenly Father," 

l John i. 1. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 177 

and not a person in the Trinity, were intended. " The 
Word," by union with human nature, it is supposed, was con- 
stituted " Son," and so acted in a subordinate capacity ; and so 
we are told, without further explanation of the mystery in the 
Godhead, that " God so loved the world that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." That he died, we know ; 
that he did not die for his own sins, we know ; 1 that " in 
due time Christ died for the ungodly," we know. 2 " He was 
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our in- 
iquities ; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and 
with his stripes we are healed." 3 It is said of him, " Whom 
God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his 
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins 
that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I 
say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, 
and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." 4 The terms 
of salvation for every penitent sinner are, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 5 " He that be- 
lieveth on him is not condemned." "Being now justified by 
his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." 6 " If 
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." 7 * All are invited to accept pardon and salvation by 
pleading the sufferings and death of this Redeemer; and it 
is then said, " There is therefore now no condemnation to them 
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but 
after the Spirit." 8 

To enforce these offers of mercy, and to supply all need- 
ful help in being saved, there is One, equal in his nature with 

1 Dan. ix. 26. 3 Is. liii. 5. 8 Acts xvi. 31. 7 1 John ii. 1, 2. 

8 Rom. v. 6. ■* Rom. lii. 25. 6 Rom. v. 9. 8 Rom. viii. 1. 



178 THE EEASONABLENESS OP 

the Father and the Son, to whom is committed the work of 
carrying redemption into effect in the hearts of men. The 
Holy Ghost, by the plan of salvation, succeeds Christ, and 
strives with men. The Bible is put into their hands; an 
order of men is appointed for the special purpose of being 
" ambassadors for Christ," " as though God did beseech them," 
and they pray them " in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
God." x One day in seven is set apart by divine authority for 
special attention to this subject. A most touching ordinance 
is divinely appointed, which every month or two appeals to 
their senses, and most powerfully to their hearts. It is no 
less than a simple representation, by two appropriate symbols, 
of the body and blood of the Redeemer pleading with man, 
" This do in remembrance of me." 2 Frequently one and 
another is converted from his sins, and accepts this of- 
fered mercy ; others confess the reality and beauty of the 
change, but they continue in their own chosen ways. Mem- 
bers of their families experience this change, and God thus 
draws them " by the cords of a man, with bands of love ; " 
"but," he is compelled to add, "they knew not that I 
healed them." 3 And now the angel of death comes into 
their dwellings ; all the softening influences of sickness, and 
the benign influences of sorrow, persuade them to be recon- 
ciled to God, and all in vain. From lips soon to close in 
death, appeals are made to them with all the love of a wife, 
or child, or pastor ; or, it may be, a partner in business sends 
word from his dying pillow, and asks them, " TThat shall it 
profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his owr 
soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
soul ? " 4 

God in his word has told them that he will confine his 
efforts for their salvation within the limits of their natural life, 

1 2 Cor. v. 20. 2 Luke xxii. 19. 3 Hosea xi. 4, 3. * Matt xvi. 26. 



179 



and with urgent love he says, " Whatsoever thy hand findeth 
to do, do it with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, 
nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest." ] 

Among the closing words of the Bible these accents fall on 
their ears like the last notes of a bell that calls to the house of 
prayer : " He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and he that 
is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous 'let 
him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him be holy 
still." 2 The vast majority of all who receive the Bible as 
the word of God unite and testify " how that Christ died for 
our sins, according to the Scriptures ; " 3 that there is pardon 
through his blood ; that he " delivered us from the wrath to 
come ; " 4 and that no probation after death is intimated in 
the Bible. 

But notwithstanding all this, men refuse to repent of their 
sins, and they persist in their repugnance to God. They go 
into the next world from amidst these influences of mercy, in 
total disregard of all which has been done to save them. 

The question is, What is it reasonable for them to expect ? 
Only two things can take place. Further measures will be 
used to reclaim them, or, They must be forever given up to 
sin and its consequences. 

It is not for man to say what shall now take place. Will 
he insist that the sinner shall have no further trial ? He 
must not prescribe limits to the mercy of God. " For my 
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my 
ways, saith the Lord." 5 Will man insist that the sinner 
ought to have another period of probation ? He is equally at 
fault if he dictates to the justice of God. Revelation is the 
only source of knowledge upon this subject. Those of our 
race who have received the word of God implicitly, and have 

i Ecc. ix. 10. 3 i Cor. xv. 3. 5 Is. lv. 8. 

2 Rev. xxii. 11. 4 i Thess. i. 10. 



180 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

interpreted that book, as they do all writings, a .cordir g to 
its most obvious import, have, with inconsiderable excep 
tions, believed that eternal punishment is revealed. But 
it is with the reasonableness of the doctrine that we are 
now concerned. There is not a doctrine of revelation — God 
forbid ! — which is against reason. It may be above reason 
in* many things, but it never contradicts either the known and 
established principles of the human conscience and under- 
standing, nor the palpable truths of human experience and 
observation. Now, upon this ground we plant ourselves, and 
say, that, so far as we can judge, endless future punishment 
is reasonable. He who disbelieves the evangelical system 
cannot prove the doctrine to be reasonable. Finding future, 
eternal punishment disclosed in the Bible, it commends itself 
to our understanding and conscience as a reasonable truth. 

One objection to it is this. It is said, — 

" Eternal punishment is too long as a penalty for the sins 
of a short life." 

None but God can judge here. The important question is, 
Was the transgressor duly notified ? He is in a foreign land, 
and is made fully acquainted with a law and its penalty, 
which he thinks is exceedingly severe. The government, 
however, have special reasons for the enactment ; but he 
prefers the risk of the penalty to the loss of a certain benefit, 
and is without excuse, for he transgressed with his eyes open 

Is it just for one to lose so much in consequence of so 
brief a period of transgression? This depends on the in- 
formation possessed beforehand. A passenger by the steamer 
does not expect that, if notice of the hour of departure is com 
municated to him, the bell will toll a whole day, or even an 
hour, for his dilatoriness. He may by losing the voyage, 
change the prospect of fife, and one half minute can decide 
whether it shall be so. 



ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 181 

Forgery, arson, manslaughter, conceived and executed in 
the briefest space of time, have no valid defence in the short- 
ness of the time occupied by the deed. A day is not too short 
in which to commit a crime which will be punished by im- 
prisonment for life. We take away a man's whole life, and 
he a young man, for an act committed within one hour. 

If a note has matured, bankruptcy is not arrested because 
the promissor received only one notice. 

We probably never heard it objected to eternal salvation, 
that it is too long to be the consequence and reward of this 
brief life. That heaven is promised to the righteous, and that 
it will be without end, no one doubts. But what if we should 
say, as we might with as good reason as in objecting to end- 
less punishment, ' Life is too short in which to merit heaven ; 
we ought to be subjected after death to a longer probation, 
be placed in new circumstances of trial for a period that 
should bear some proportion to the greatness of the reward.' 
What period of trial would be thought an equivalent for meas- 
u ;eless felicity, it would be hard indeed to say ; and we are 
herefore led to the principle that the length of time in which 
good or evil actions take place is no proper measure of their 
desert. We act upon this principle in every thing. 

Much use is made of this objection to endless punishment 
as urged by the late Rev. John Foster, an evargelical Bap- 
tist, of England. He writes a letter to a youivg ministerial 
friend who had asked his views on the subject of endless 
punishment. Mr. Foster says that he has made much less 
research into this subject than his young friend had probably 
done, and that he had been " too content, perhaps, to let an 
opinion or impression admitted in early life dispense with 
protracted inquiry and various reading." He then says, 
" The general, not very far short of universal, judgment of 
divine in animation of the doctrine of eternal punishment, 
16 



182 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

must be acknowledged a weighty consideration. It is a fail 
question, is it likely that so many thousands of able, learned, 
benevolent, and pious men should all have been in error ? 
And the language of Scripture is formidably strong ; so strong 
that it must be an argument of extreme cogency that w :>uld 
authorize a limited interpretation." 

But his answer to all this is, in his own words, — "the 
stupendous idea of eternity," — upon which he proceeds to 
dwell with great power. 

To this, one reply may be, that the great and good men of 
all evangelical denominations, as capable as Mr. Foster of 
appreciating the awful idea of eternity, a have generally," and, 
as he himself says, " not very far short of universally." received 
this doctrine. Almost every believer in -it has, at some time, 
had some relation or friend whose condition at death excited 
fearful thoughts, and clothed the grave with more than mid- 
night darkness. The very strongest temptations have thus 
been presented to believers in the doctrine to find or create 
insuperable objections to it ; yet the vast majority of Christian 
believers who have lost friends concerning whose condition 
they entertain but little hope, remain persuaded that the doc- 
trine is revealed. Mr. Foster had no knowledge or penetra- 
tion which they did not possess ; he also " was formed out of 
the clay ; " he could substantiate no claim to have his feelings 
of repugnance regarded as paramount to the feelings of sub- 
mission and faith with which his Christian brethren, in the 
hour of their sorrow, have deliberately declared their belief in 
this doctrine. 

But we are furnished with another reply, in a letter of Mr. 
Foster himself to I^ev. Dr. Harris, on another subject and at 
a different tin e. in which he describes this world as he thinks 
it would strike the inhabitants of another planet. These few 
word: will show the tenor of his remarks : " To me it appears 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 183 



a most mysteriously awful economy, overspread by a lurid 
shade. I pray for the pie y to maintain a humble submission 
to the wise and righteous Disposer of all existence. But to 
see a nature, created in purity, ruined at the very origin, &c, 
the grand remedial visitation, Christianity, laboring in a diffi- 
cult progress — soon perverted — at the present hour known 
and even nominally acknowledged by very greatly the minority 
of the race — its progress distanced by the increase of the 
population — thousands every day passing out of the world in 
no state of fitness for a pure and happy state elsewhere, — O, it 
is a most confounding and appalling contemplation." So he 
describes this world in very much the same way in which he 
has depicted future, endless retributions ; and we may say 
that had he been told of such a world as ours, under the gov- 
ernment of a good God, he would have had misgivings and 
objections not unlike those which "he has expressed on the 
subject of future punishment. He excites distrust and fear in 
our minds with regard to the government of the world. We 
should not feel happy in the thought that God reigns, nor 
could we see how the multitude of the isles should be glad 
thereof, should we live under the influence of such views as 
those of this truly able and excellent man. 

It is objected again that " a mere mortal cannot, by any sins 
which he can commit, merit endless punishment" 

Whether he actually does incur it, we say again, must be 
assertained from revelation. In reply to this objection, we are 
tc remember that it is not one single transgression which God 
is called upon to punish — a sudden, unpremeditated, or even 
one deliberate act, for which act the sinner is sorry ; but it is 
continued disobedience, in opposition to all the methods of 
divine love and wisdom employed to turn us from our sins. 
Conscience has faithfully done her work until she was seared ; 
warnings and threatemngs have exhausted their strength ; the 



184 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

cross of Christ and the influences of the Holy Spirit, have 
proved of no avail. 

There may be little sins against some of the gods of hea- 
thenism, but there can be no little sin against Jehovah. But 
how is man " little " ? He has competent knowledge of the 
character of God ; he is only " a little lower than the angels," * 
and has dominion over all the works of God. He can com- 
prehend the starry heavens ; he is Godlike in his original 
nature, for " in the image of God made he him." The sublime 
truths which God has revealed to man show what estimate 
God has of man's capacity and responsibility. A finite crea- 
ture can insult the majesty of heaven as deliberately and in- 
telligently as the archangel ; lie can annihilate the authority 
of God in his own soul, and wherever he has influence ; if all 
finite creatures should do this, — and there are no creatures 
who are not finite, — there would be no moral universe, no 
divine government. 

It is said, " It is a libel on the character of God to believe 
that he can bear to punish his children forever." 

Had we known beforehand that God was to create offspring 
whom he would teach to call him by the endearing name of 
Father, and then should see four hundred of these his children 
in such a scene of indescribable agony and destruction as was 
recently witnessed on board the " Central America," we should 
say, the analogy between divine and human parentage surely 
is imperfect. God is something besides a " Father ; " he is 
King and Judge. Men never discipline their children by drown- 
ing them, and burning them, and tearing them in pieces. The 
destruction of the Canaanites for their iniquity is so terrible, 
that some, for that reason, reject the Old Testament, which 
approves it. God's judgments are a great deep. True, ''he 

1 Psalm viii. 



FJTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 185 

made birds and flowers ; " all the exquisite sensibilities of the 
human system are his gift; the natural and moral world are, 
by his love and skill, most beautifully adapted to each other ; 
and will he hide his face forever from a single child ? No, 
not unless that child persists to hide his face and withhold his 
heart from God. " For he will not lay on man more than is 
right, that he should enter into judgment with God." 1 He 
is seeking continually to make his children love him. The 
Sabbath day perpetually reminds every one of them of God. 
Church spires every where point to heaven. Church-going 
bells call men to prayer, and to hear the gospel. Friends, 
by their words and example, persuade men to love and serve 
God. How many people are there, probably, in this city, for 
example, who have not had, and do not have, not only oppor- 
tunity, but persuasion of some kind, within and without, to fear 
God ? There are few, if any, who see the lightning or hear the 
thunder, without having the thought of their accountableness 
flash through their minds. If but a hearse appears in the 
streets, all who see it are left without excuse should they die 
in their sins. " By the things which are made " God is so 
" clearly seen," that even idolaters are " without excuse ; " 
much more they who, to say no m >re, live where the Christian 
Sabbath, like the quiet moon, at short and regular intervals, 
arrests and turns the mighty tide of human affairs, so that 
even the prisoner in his cell feels it lifting and bearing him 
heavenward, and the Sabbath-breaker himself, by the \ ery in- 
crease of his gains on that day, or by the opportunity for 
sloth, or by the feeling which leads him to hasten or delay his 
drive, to avoid the church-going people, has conviction of Bin 
and admonition of duty sufficient to bar excuses and to mak i 
him speechless in the day when God rises up to judgment. 
But at last the day of life is over — the period within which 

*. 1 Job xxxiv. 23. 

16* 



186 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

God told ui that his efforts for our conversion would be limited, 
and after which, he warned us, would be the judgment, and 
endless retribution. Some said that this was impossible in the 
nature of things. They were told that the Bible literally 
declared it. They said that it was figurative, or a parable- 
They were reminded of the words of Jesus, the final Judge, 
relating the very words of the last sentence upon the wicked. 
They said that the God who made spring, and birds, and flow- 
ers, and human affections, and who is himself a Father, could 
not see men suffer without end. But the love of God, they 
are told, is not seen in spring, and birds, and flowers, and hu- 
man happiness, so much as in this, that " God so loved the 
world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever be- 
lieveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
" Herein is love ; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, 
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." l But 
all this proves of no avail ; they go to "the judgment seat of 
Christ," " every one," to " receive the things done in the body, 
whether it be good or bad." 2 

Shall God now violate the fundamental characteristic of 
their constitution, that is, free agency, and instead of governing 
them by motives, treat them like moulded clay, which, when it 
does not suit him, the potter presses together again on the 
wheel, and makes of it another vessel ? That is not such a 
government as God chooses to administer, but a government 
of motives, addressed to free and accountable creatures. What 
shall now be done with those whom God has failed in his 
efforts to turn and save ? Some reply, " He ought to punish 
them till they do repent." 

And yet they who say this, many of them, tell us, as one 
great argument against future, endless punishment, that " we 
have misery enough in this world, without being punished in 

i John iv. 10. 2 2 Cor. v. 10. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 187 

the next." Therefore, by their own acknowledgment, God 
has already used dreadful methods of chastisement with them ; 
so great that they say there cannot be any future punishment 
of sin. Yet these mortal agonies of body and mind, these life- 
long trials and sorrows, have failed to make them love and 
serve God. Will it be useful that he should proceed and 
punish them further? Can God heap upon them sorrows 
more bitter than they have felt at the graves of their loved 
ones, and at their return from those graves to their desolated 
dwellings ? Are there other strokes of his lightnings better 
fitted to rive and consume their spirits than those with which 
they have already been struck ? It is not reasonable. The 
wrath of God is not " the power of God and the wisdom of 
God unto salvation." x We have a different opinion respecting 
our Maker from that which leads one to believe that anger, 
fury, vengeance are the perfection of his governmental influ- 
ences ; as they surely are, if they are more efficacious than 
the love which he has manifested in the Son of his love. 

God himself says, " What more could be done to my vine- 
yard that I have not done in it ? " 

We suppose, therefore, — and we think it is reasonable, — ■ 
that if we do not repent of our sins, and are not willing to 
accept Christ, and all the efforts of mercy to save us, God will 
suffer us to sin against him forever. He will not hinder 
us from having our own chosen way. Shall we rebel against 
this ? Will we say, " This is cruel ; it is tyrannical, unworthy 
of God, our heavenly Father, to let us have our own choice ? 
That choice, we know, is not good ; but he ought to make us 
good. What! suffer us to sin against him forever!" We 
chose to sin against him as long as we could ; and now it is 
not unreasonable to give us the desire of our hearts. But 
God may say, This I will do. I will place all of you >y1io 
l Horn. i. 16 ; 1 Cor. i. 18, 24. 



188 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

sin, in a world by yourselves, from which I and my friends 
will forever withdraw. Perhaps we secretly say, " If this be 
all, we do not so much object. This is not hell." But sup- 
pose that when God withdraws from us, he takes every thing 
away with him. This present world cannot be a pattern of 
a world where all is sin. For this world was made for an 
upright race, and when they fell, nature itself, in most things, 
survived the fall. We are not to suppose that the wicked 
will find themselves in a world of beauty, where they may 
reconstruct society after the model of the present life, and 
where they shall enjoy liberty and all the blessings of God's 
providence. But if God departs from them, it is reasonable 
to suppose that he will leave them no proofs of his love to 
them whatever ; for he says, " "Woe also unto them when I 
depart from them." 1 He would take away, we must sup- 
pose, all their domestic relations, friendships, social pleasures, 
books, every pursuit of knowledge, music, travels, quiet sleep, 
morning and evening salutations of loved ones, and change 
the whole face of nature; for God would not ha.e made so 
many things just to give pleasure, had he made this world for 
the permanent abode of rebels ; and when we leave this 
world, if we have shut God out of it by our sins, we cannot 
expect to find a beautiful world like this prepared for our 
abode. It is of great use to us to see good people here ; we 
feel safer to think that there are churches and meetings for 
prayer, and the Lord's supper, though w r e decline any part in 
them. These things are for our profit ; and the good and the 
bad share alike, because this is a state of probation, not of 
reward. But if we refuse to be won by these things, then it 
may be as though a certain vision of Jeremiah were, in some 
sense, fulfill jd in our future abode. He describes Jerusalem 
w \sted, and a 1 her people gone into captivity. " I beheld the 
* ! Hosea ix. 12. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 189 

earth, and lo, it was without form and void ; and the Leavens, 
and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and lo, thej 
trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and lo, 
there was no man, and all the birds of heaven were fled." ] 
When God tells us what heaven is, 2 he describes the pop- 
ulation of them that are " without — dogs, sorcerers," and 
others ; as though he said, ' I will gather sinners together in 
one place, bring together all the obscene, liars, murderers, 
pirates, idolaters, into one community with you whose tastes 
have been cultivated ; for why should I discriminate between 
those who have together rebelled against me, and rejected my 
Son ? ' If to any, by reason of their great accomplishments of 
mind and manners, this will be specially intolerable, they must 
remember that in those endowments they have special motives 
and helps towards being saved, and to save others. " Thou in 
thy lifetime receivedst thy good things ; " but " thou mayes* 
be no longer steward." 

Would there be any thing unreasonable in this ? In view 
of all which God has done to save the soul, in view of the 
full notice which we have received that this life is our only 
period of probation, and the opportunities which we have had 
to secure eternal life, we cannot accuse the Almighty of in- 
justice if we find that there is no opportunity after death to 
repent and believe the gospel. Above all, we cannot reason- 
ably expect, from what we already know of God, that having 
expended upon us all which the gospel of his grace includes, 
he will, upon the failure of that which is " the brightness of 
his glory," put us into a prison, and wear out our spirits with 
suffering, and thus reduce us, like refractory culprits, to a 
state of mind in which we cannot refuse to love him. Such 
is not the Being whom many of us delight to call our heavenly 
Father. If any worship such a God as this, they have their 
l Jer. iv. 23-25. 2 Rev. xxii. 14. 



190 THE REASONABLENESS OP 

liberty to do so ; but let them not complain to us of unreason 
ableness in our views of God. 

It seems reasonable, therefore, to believe, in common with 
the vast majority in all ages of those who receive the Bible 
as the word of God, that all who fail to repent and accept the 
pardon of their sins through Jesus Christ in this life, will al 
death find those words to be literally true, which seem to be 
placed among the last words of the Bible by divine arrange- 
ment, for the solemn effect which they always have upon the 
human heart : " He that is unjust let him be unjust still, and 
he that is filthy let him be filthy still, and he that is righteous 
let him be righteous still, and he that is holy let him be 
holy still. And behold I come quickly ; and my reward is 
with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." 1 

As to the heathen, we are not their judge. The first and 
second chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, however, are 
very explicit with regard to them. " The invisible things of 
God," that is, " his eternal power and Godhead," " are clearly 
seen, being understood by the things that are made ; so that 
they are without excuse." 2 We are told that " they hold the 
truth," but " in unrighteousness ; " therefore it is said, " the 
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against " them. 3 We 
sometimes hear a passage, in this connection, quoted thus : 
" For as many as have sinned without law shall also be 
judged without law." Not so. It reads, " For as many as 
have sinned without law shall also perish without law. 4 It is a 
common remark, but it will bear repetition, " We shall either 
find the heathen in heaven, if we ourselves are there, or see 
good and satisfactory reasons for their not being there." 

Far too much is made of the question, and great injury has 
been done by it, whether or not there will be literal fire in 

1 Rev. xxii. 11, 12. 2 Rom. i. 20. 3 Rom. i. 18. * Rom. ii. 12- 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 191 

the future punishment of the wicked. It is well to discourage 
such a discussion. We shall have bodies after the resurrec- 
tion, for " all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of 
the Son of man, and shall come forth, they that have done good 
unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil 
unto the resurrection of damnation." Our bodies will, of 
course, be of a less spiritual nature than the soul, otherwise 
two souls will be conjoined in one person. We naturally sup- 
pose that the object of the body will be to relate the soul to 
an external world ; as glass, in the telescope, though a grosser 
object than the eye, helps vision, so the body will aid the soul 
hereafter, as here. This we all admit. Now, in what ele- 
ment, if any, the righteous or the wicked will live hereafter, 
is of no possible importance to us, seeing that the primary 
source of happiness or misery with intelligent creatures must 
be mental, and if there be external sources of pleasure or 
suffering, they are mere circumstances in their condition ; they 
are not the substantive occasion of their joy or sorrow. To 
represent the Most High as inflicting tortures on the bodies 
of the wicked strikes us as unworthy of the conceptions con- 
cerning God with which the Bible inspires us. A world of 
sinners, unmitigated by the presence of a single good being, 
God himself and all his restraining influences forever with- 
drawn, needs no penal fires to increase our sense of its horror ; 
indeed, they rather detract from our ideas of the most intense 
misery. If all that is personified by " death," and all the 
mental, moral, and social elements of what is called k< hell " 
are to be " cast into a lake of fire," every intelligent person 
would suppose that the element containing them would be of 
little importance. They would be no more to the inhabitants 
than the element of water could be to Pontius Pilate, whom a 
great poet represents as in a flood, his hands above it, and he 

washing them, 

° "Which still unwashen strove," 



192 THE REASONA-BLENESS OF 

in memory of his taking water to wash those hands of a certain 
prisoner's blood. 2vb one would suppose that living in the 
element of water could be a principal source of misery in 
such a punishment. But we read, ' Then shall the King say 
also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, 
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' 
Figurative language, it may justly be said, is out of place in 
a judicial sentence, for, of all utterances, this should be as 
strictly literal as justice itself. 

If, now, we should believe, on this single passage, or for any 
other reason, that the element in which future retribution will 
be administered is declared to be fire, instead of air, or water, 
or earth, we should do vast injustice to the subject of divine 
retributions to intrude the idea. I refer to it, therefore, for 
a purpose, which seems to me important, of vindicating our 
belief in future, endless retributions from imputations of 
grossness and physical barbarity. TVe use the language of 
the Saviour and of his apostles without hesitation, and there 
we stop. Any details of the curse, and of the punishment, 
and of what is " prepared," would add nothing to our concep- 
tions of the dread sentence from the lips of Him whose " left 
hand " was once nailed to the atoning cross, for those whom 
he bids " Depart." 

If the language of Christ in that last sentence, and in other 
places, relating to future punishment, be figurative, we remem- 
ber that, by the laws of the human mind, figurative language 
is generally resorted to in consequence of insufficiency in 
literal terms. We do not cavil at the use of figurative speech, 
nor subtract from its intention, when we know that the speaker 
is serious and earnest. If a master in chancery informs a 
man that his property has proved "to be zero," the man will 
not remind his friends, nor insist with his creditors, that the 
expression is only metaphorical. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 193 

We believe that the threatening of future, endless punish- 
ment has been one great means of what little fear of God 
there has hitherto been in this world ; and that it has been a 
powerful element in the causes which have led to the salvation 
of the " multitude which no man can number," who " fled foi 
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them." "We are 
not ashamed to say that Ave believe in, and we fear, the ever- 
lasting wrath of God, and that this has been a means of lead- 
ing us to believe in " his Son from heaven, even Jesus, which 
delivered us from the wrath to come." "■ 

Nor is our doctrine one that narrows and enfeeb^s the mind. 
It is connected with a stupendous system of truths. It leads 
us to believe that this w T orld, small as it is, is* made use of by 
the Creator to illustrate principles in his government, " to the 
intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly 
places may be known by the church the manifold wisdom of 
God." 2 

That this world is the smallest but two in the planetary 
system, is no more a valid objection to its being used for 
infinite purposes of wisdom, than it would be to object to the 
size of the slate on which La Place wrought out his logarithms 
for his Mecanique Celeste. God is solving problems in this 
world with sin ; the results may enter into the practical knowl- 
edge of unnumbered worlds, as the answers to problems are 
transferred to books of navigation, and are the confidence of 
them that are afar off upon the sea. Our own Lexington and 
Bunker Hill were not too small for transactions which brought 
this nation into being ; nor did one field in Waterloo prove too 
small to have the destiny of half of Europe decided there. 
The cross of a Redeemer has stood here ; things are asso- 
ciated with it which we are told " angels desire to look into." 3 
"All things were created by him and for him, and he is before 

l 1 Thess. i. 10. 2 Eph. iii. 10. 3 l p e ter i. 12. 

IT 



194 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

all things, and by him all things consist." * " We see Jesus, 
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering 
of death, crowned with glory and honor ; that he, by the grace 
of God, should taste death for every man." So we believe in 
a sacrifice for sin, which is made infinitely efficacious by the 
presence in the person of Jesus of the Word, who was " with 
God," and " was God." In such a Redeemer and in such a 
redemption we see our infinite ruin. We believe that God 
will show, by means of those who reject this redemption, what 
sin is capable of doing, and then, by letting sinners eat of the 
fruit of their own ways, and filling them with their own 
devices, perhaps he will, by the help of it, so instruct and 
govern the universe of free, accountable beings, that it shall 
forever be said, " Dominion and fear are with him ; he maketh 
peace in his high places." 2 An endless heaven is prepared, 
in which the righteous will have bodies " fashioned like unto 
Christ's glorious body, according to the working whereby he 
is able even to subdue all things unto himself." Thus being 
associated most wonderfully with the incarnate Word, they 
will be the objects of love with all who worship at the throne 
of God and of the Lamb, and not only so, but with Him who 
will say of us, with more joy than that with which he regards 
the ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance, " I 
have found the sheep that was lost." 

But, in the mean time, we read that " the Lord Jesus shall 
be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming 
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;" — such is the 
crime and the accusation ; — u who shall be punished with 
everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and 
from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glori 
fie<T in his saints, and to be admired in all them that oe 

l Col. i. 16, 17 2 Job sxv. 2. 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 195 



lieve (for our testimony among you was believed) in thai 
day." 1 

The penalty annexed to a law is all that makes it a law ; 
without a penalty, it is no more a law than an extract from a 
sermon. The penalty is the expression of the lawgiver's 
opinion of the crime. There is something in weak and insuf- 
ficient penalties, and in bail far below the offence, which 
makes the heart faint and sick. It must inspire holy beings 
with confidence, who know what sin is, and what it deserves, 
and what it would do to them if, it could triumph, to see and 
feel that there is a Supreme Being, who, with all his love, has 
no doting fondness, nor any weakness, but can bear to see the 
wicked suffer, if necessary and right. They consider his 
word, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die," and they see in it 
the foundation of their confidence in God. How much evil is 
there in sin? It is itself evil; anti-governmental, subverting 
every form of happiness ; its tendency, as we have seen, is to 
dethrone God. If God affixes less than an infinite punish- 
ment to sin, it shows that he considers it less than an infinite 
evil. If the penalty threatened against such a sin be less than 
infinite, the natural inference would be, To sin against God is 
not an infinite evil, for it has no infinite punishment. Men 
could say, and all races on probation could say, If we sin 
against God, our punishment will come to an end ; and after 
that, there will be an eternity in heaven, in comparison with 
which our immense duration of punishment will become as a 
drop to the sea. Men, they would say, escaped at last, and 
are now universally and forever happy in heaven ; and so 
world after world might become rebellious, and their histories 
be like those of earth. We think it reasonable to say, Far 
better that the comparatively few from earth should bear the 
consequences of their sin forever, than that, by an insufficient 
i 2 Thess. i. 7-10. 



196 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

punishment of sin, disaster should come upon realms we know 
not how many and great. I say this to meet the objection 
that the everlasting punishment of any, whether comparatively 
a few, or even of many, is to be a blot on the government of 
God. For the whole question may resolve itself into this : Is 
it best that God should have a moral government ? If that 
involves the possibility of sin, some would say, No ; others 
would say, Yes, provided the sinners might be as free in their 
sin as the righteous are in their righteousness ; then, for the 
sake of the inconceivable bliss in a universe of intelligent 
creatures, let there be this government, by motives, and let 
* the righteousness of the righteous be upon him, and the wick- 
edness of the wicked be upon him.' Angels, it appears, were 
placed on probation in heaven, and under the most favorable 
circumstances ; man was placed in probation in paradise, with 
slight inducement to sin ; man had a Redeemer in the person 
of his Creator ; angels may have had an equivalent motive to 
obedience in the immediate presence of their Creator, and in 
full knowledge of what a forfeiture they would incur by sin. 
Angels sinned, notwithstanding all that Heaven had done to 
keep them upright ; men perish, notwithstanding the redemp- 
tion made by their God and Saviour. The illustrations which 
their eternal punishment will afford of the nature of sin, of 
the love of God, of divine justice, of free agency, of holiness 
and its infinite rewards, we say it is not unreasonable to be- 
lieve, will outweigh the personal sufferings of those who volun- 
tarily sin and perish. We say, voluntarily perish ; for God 
will give to each one according to his deeds. Though there 
were an inconceivable multitude who should perish, yet in the 
immense variety of their individual cases, discriminating 
justice will be weighed out to them with a care and exactness 
unapproached by the exquisite balances in the mint, or with 
the apothecary. Could holy beings get the impression thai 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 197 



there is one soul from Christian, pagan, or heathen lands, with 
whom its Maker had dealt harshly, or laid upon him one 
stripe more than was his due, there would be sudden silence 
among them; they would look one upon another; and the 
seraphim who, in their worship, spread more of their six wings 
to cover themselves with than to fly, would spread them all to 
fly, — whither they might not say, but only where they might 
no longer be constrained to cry, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
God of Hosts ! No such occasion ever will be given for such 
loss of confidence ; but they will say, " Alleluia ! salvation, 
and glory, and honor, and power unto the Lord our God ; for 
true and righteous are his judgments." 1 

As those who desire to be of good repute with you as men 
of understanding, and of humane, generous sentiments and 
feelings, we do not hesitate to say, that the "reasonableness 
of future, endless punishment" is as plain to us" as its scrip- 
tural proofs. 

If, when we read that it would have been good for Judas 
Iscariot that he had never been born, and therefore that there 
is no eternity of happiness for him, to follow any vast period 
of expiatory suffering, — if we are expressly told that blas- 
phemy against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, neither 
in this world nor in that which is to come, — if it be true that 
Satan and his angels are reserved in chains under darkness 
unto the judgment of the great day, and if then a part of 
our race are to be consigned to the same abode with them for 
retribution, — whose eternity is expressed by the selfsame 
word which is employed to designate the duration of happiness 
for the righteous ; and for these and other equally powerful 
representations of the Bible, we have unwavering faith in the 
doctrine as a revealed truth ; the confidence with which we 

1 Rev. xix. 1. 

17* 



198 THE REASONABLENESS OF 

believe it may be judged of when we say, that it commends 
itself to our reason as truly as it does to our faith. How it 
commends itself to our faith, may be learned by knowing that 
the doctrine does not stand as an isolated thing in our belief. 
The laws of comparative anatomy, so to speak, may be applied 
to it, and we say, If certain things are true, which in our 
earliest discoveries of practical truth we are confident are 
essential to salvation, then this doctrine is as really required, 
as immense vertebras of an unknown animal require that the 
undiscovered ribs should also be immense. An astronomer 
notices the slower or quicker rate of motion in a planet at 
one part of its orbit, and he tells you that there must be a 
world beyond it, not yet seen ; he tells you its size, its gravity, 
its orbit, its rate of motion ; and when at last Xeptune is dis- 
covered, it proves to be precisely that which Uranus dictated 
by his perturbations. So that the doctrine of endless retribu- 
tion is not, with us, a mere dogma ; it belongs to a great 
scheme of revealed truth which we call the " plan of redemp- 
tion," all of which stands or falls together. 

The key to this great scheme — "which," we are warranted 
to say, " in other ages was not made known unto the sons of 
men as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets " 
— is the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Believe 
that, and logically you are led to receive the whole. Reject 
that, and you cannot consistently believe the doctrine now 
under discussion. 

" ' What think ye of Christ ? ' is the test 
To try both your state and your scheme." 

The Creator, the Second Person in the Godhead, takes our 
nature ; that mysterious, complex Being goes to the cross, and 
dies. Then the atonement follows, as a matter of course ; 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 199 

and if an atonement is made for sin, then the wages of sin is 
death. If man can atone for sin by ages of suffering, and 
then reach heaven, it is unreasonable, we say, to believe that 
this stupendous sacrifice would have been made. So that 
Christ is " the power of God and the wisdom of God unto 
salvation." There are words of mighty import in that pas- 
sage : " Who hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. 
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." l 

" The wages of sin is death." Some say, The wages 
of sin is conscience ; some, The wages of sin is discipline ; 
some, The wages of sin is imprisonment for a great, indefinite 
period, for the purpose of punishment and restoration. Let 
us adhere to the Bible : " The wages of sin is death." If you 
call it figurative, the laws of rhetoric teach us that a meaning 
totally opposite to the nature of a figure cannot be true. The 
ruling idea conveyed by the word death is termination. If 
you search the Bible for instances in which death means a 
limited infliction, and so reduce one side of the equation in the 
passage from which the text is taken, you must by necessity 
reduce the other side ; and thus, so much as you diminish 
death, you must diminish life; for if death be not death, 
neither is life eternal life. 

Notice also the two contrasted words in the verse from 
which the text is taken : " The wages of sin is death ; but the 
gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
Death for sin is "wages" — something earned or merited. 
Eternal life is not "wages" to us; it is to angels. The law 
is the angels' gospel. They stand by obedience. But to us 
eternal life, if we have it, is without works — a gift, un- 
merited, free. Having forfeited heaven by sin, God stands 
ready to give it to us on certain terms, the terms and method 
themselves being no less wonderful than the gift, 
i 2 Cor. v. 21. 



200 THE REASONABLENESS OP 

Need I remind you that this is a subject which, for each of 
us, is of unparalleled interest ? Each of us may, without pre- 
sumption, say with his Maker, " I live forever." If God says, 
" Of my years there is no end," the words may be responded 
to by us : Of my years there is no end. But each of us is 
also a sinner, ruined and lost. We believe that sin can be 
forgiven only by faith in Jesus Christ, who, by his sufferings 
and death, is a substitute for the sinner, and constitutes for 
him a righteousness which takes away his condemnation, and 
prepares for his sanctification and salvation. We are told 
that there is salvation in no other way, and, moreover, that 
unbelief of it, where there has been sufficient opportunity to 
understand it, proceeds from a wrong state of feeling, and 
is therefore morally wrong, and that such unbelief is declared 
by Christ and his apostles to be the greatest of all pardonable 
Bins. Christ says, " He that believeth not the Son shall not see 
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him " Do we who preach 
tell the people this ? Surely it is not possible for the Son of 
God to suffer and die in our stead, and we be innocent if we 
do not believe in him ; but we shall add to the guilt of sin the 
heavier guilt of rejecting the offered remedy, procured at such 
infinite expense. The sight of Christ will close our lips if we 
are not saved. He portrayed the scenes of the last judgment ; 
the separation, the welcome of the righteous, and the sinner's 
doom. And having done this, he went to " a place which is 
called Calvary," and died to save us from the condemnation 
which he had so faithfully and affectingly portrayed. If we 
fail to believe in him, and he therefore fails to redeem us 
from our. sin, we must experience the truth of our text. 
And when the judgment is passed by, and the wicked have 
gone to their own place, and angels stand in silence, weeping, 
and thinking of their end, methinks I hear one of them break 
fhe silence and say, After the Saviour had suffered for them, 



FUTURE, ENDLESS PUNISHMENT. 201 

it is an infinite pity that they should perish. And may many 
(may it be all !) of you, who now are unbelievers, but then 
redeemed sinners, continue the strain and say, " For God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlast- 
ing life." Salvation ! Salvation ! Every one of us can be 
saved. " For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to 
obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, 
that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with 
him." O Saviour ! how sweet thy name ! how precious thy 
dying love, in connection with this theme ! Thou art our sun, 
pouring celestial beauty on those clouds which, are round 
about God, and painting on this darkness and tempest at 
which we have gazed, a rainbow in sight like unto an emer- 
ald. May we all cast our crowns at thy feet, saying, " Unto 
him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in 
his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests 
unto God and his Father; to him be glory and 
dominion forever and ever. amen." 



VI 



GOD IS LOYE. 



Whatever may be the component parts and qualities of 
the sun, its prominent characteristics are light and heat, and 
all its parts and qualities combine to produce them. 

So every thing in God conspires to one thing. That which 
presides over all his actions, and rules in all his feelings, and 
pervades his whole nature, so as to give its character, in the 
view of intelligent beings, to all which he is, and to all which 
he does, is Love. 

It might have been something else; for example, Justice. 
Whatever we heard, or saw, or felt, of the Most High, might 
have produced this chief impression upon us, — that God is 
Just. Or it might have been Power, illustrated in the works 
of nature, and in his dealings with his creatures. Or it might 
have been, in a word, Holiness, — every thing conspiring to 
produce, with an overwhelming impression, the feeling that 
God is Holy. All these attributes are essential to our rever- 
ence and love for God ; but these, singly or altogether, are 
not so preeminently his characteristic, that it can be said with 
truth, God is Justice, God is Power, God is Holiness. 

No one has failed to think what an infinitely solemn thing 
it is that we live under the absolute disposal of one Being 
who made us, ordains our lot, and is able to do with us that 

(203) 



204 GOD IS LOYE. 

which seems good in his sight. The question will arise, What 
security have I for my welfare ? Annihilation is impossible. 
There are elements around me which I cannot control. The 
wind can destroy me ; the chemical combinations in the atmos- 
phere can take away my health, my life ; lightnings may con- 
sume me ; the earth can swallow me up. My disembodied 
spirit being still susceptible of pleasure and pain, what pro- 
tection have I in a future state ? how do I know that existence, 
on the whole, will be a blessing, and not a curse? The 
mind longs for a feeling of certainty that benevolence is and 
will be the law of our being. God is almighty ; no one can 
go from his presence ; how may I know that his power will 
not be employed to make me unhappy forever, let my charac- 
ter be what it may ? 

The answer to such thoughts and questionings is found in 
the incontrovertible truth, that the perfections of God are 
ruled by Love. 

But how does it appear that love guides in the divine 
administration ; that, to a competent spectator, who could see 
the whole scheme of the divine government, it would appear 
that the motive, the feeling, and the end aimed at, is Love ? 

If we can establish the following proposition, which it will 
be a principal object of these pages to do, this question will be 
settled in every mind. The proposition is this : 

It is essential to the success of the divine gov- 
ernment OVER FREE AND ACCOUNTABLE BEINGS, THAT 
LOVE SHOULD RULE IN THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS. 

It would plainly be impossible for this world to exist, as 
things are now constituted, if love did not pervade the per- 
fections of God, and rule in them. If this is made clear, we 
shall have no difficulty in applying the truth wherever there 
are intelligent subjects of the divine government. 



GOD IS LOVE. 205 

If love were not the motive and end of the divine Being, it 
would be necessary to suppose that some other quality would 
be ; for in the nature of things, every moral being has some 
ruling motive or governing purpose. We have only to sup- 
pose that the governing purpose or feeling in God were 
something different from love, his object being not to" manifest 
love as his chief end, but to do something else ; for example, 
to show his power. This, therefore, is the testimony, we 
will suppose, which is borne by the heavens, earth, and seas — 
that God is power. All these things, indeed, now testify that 
God is powerful ; but suppose that, in the same sense in which 
it is new said that God is love, it should be said, with equal 
truth, God is power? 

To begin with the seas : What would be seen there ? Now, 
benevolence reigns for the most part over the great deep. 
A thousand fold more ships pass safely over it than are sunk 
in it; innumerably more lives are preserved than destroyed 
there. Men go to sea with the confidence that there will be 
favorable winds to bear them to any and every part of the 
globe ; and every day or week vessels arrive in the different 
ports from northern climes and southern, from the east and 
west. This is benevolence ; there is power in it ; but chiefly 
it illustrates the goodness of God. 

But take away benevolence, consulting the happiness of 
man, from its rule in the divine purposes, and let power 
ascend and govern to the exclusion of benevolence as the 
great end. Then the object would be to make the four winds 
show their strength ; the height of waves, the fury of tem- 
pests, the roar of ocean, the apparent mingling of sea and 
sky, would proclaim, God is power. From the fierce Baltic 
to the typhoons of the Indian Seas, this voice would go forth, 
— God is power. Few, if any, sails would tempt the winds of 
18 



206 GOD IS LOVE. 

heaven ; a keel would seldom venture among the waves whose 
chief office should be to show that God is power, each billow 
then, like a wandering green mound, denoting that some 
human form was intombed there. Commerce would cease ; 
parts of the earth would bid each other farewell ; for God is 
power. 

How would it be on land ? Gigantic forms of rocks would 
overhang the dwellings of men, which could then be only in 
valleys, where the chief locomotive power visible would be the 
wings of eagles, mocking the weakness of imprisoned man. 
The rain would descend to show its force, not to bless the 
earth ; the rivers would be swift with currents defying human 
strength and skill ; the springs and fountains which now, like 
a child's hymn, murmur, " God is good," would rise into tor- 
rents, and cry, God is power. Vegetation would be excessive, 
and men would be cumbered under the prodigality of the 
earth. Nothing would exist as now merely to give pleasure. 
The greenness which refreshes the eye would assume a daz- 
zling brilliancy, to impress the mind with a sense of power ; 
the hues and fragrance of flowers would be useless ; every 
where strength would supplant beauty ; majesty would tread 
upon the meek and quiet forms of nature; and the awful 
power of God would compel the fear and adoration which 
now, involuntarily, arise with mingled love and praise, at the 
sight of the touching evidence of his goodness. As for the 
heavens, day unto day would, indeed, utter speech of him, and 
night unto night would show forth knowledge, but not as 
now, (in the elliptical but expressive language of the ori- 
ginal,) — " no speech ; no language ; their voice is not 
heard ; " but, on the contrary, the air would be full of varied 
and awful grandeur both in sights and sounds ; and signs in 
the sun, moon, and stars would make the nations pale ; the 
grateful vicissitudes of seasons would be exchanged for demon- 



GOD IS LOVE. 20T 

strations of omnipotence ; the only impression on the minds 
of men would be that which is made by the forlorn Moslem 
cry through all Mahometan deserts, and seas, and cities, 
" God is great." 

But let us suppose that the justice of God should make the 
predominant impression upon our minds. Then, the world 
would be a palace of justice ; every place of assembly and 
every dwelling would be like a court room ; every where we 
should see the signs and ministrations of law. Then every 
transgression and disobedience would meet with a just recom- 
pense of reward. The common spectacle in the streets 
would be people meeting with their deserved fate, ven- 
geance seizing on the wicked and mixing for them her cup of 
trembling in exact proportion to their crimes. In the midst 
of festivity and domestic peace, the sentence of death would 
be uttered by ministers of justice, refusing respite or reprieve; 
the great end of God's administration of the world would be 
to do justice, and to impress a sense of his justice upon men; 
the terrors of law and of violated obligation would take the 
place of clemency, and the providence of God, which now 
makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sends 
rain on the just and the unjust, would be armed on every side 
with admonitions of guilt, and of approaching or instant 
retribution. Then the softening influences of contrition and 
repentance would be exchanged for fear and despair. True, 
goodness would meet with its just reward ; every righteous 
act would be duly paid for, every kind deed be recompensed 
at once; but, in that case, virtue would lose the powerful 
excitements which disappointment and injury afford; faith, 
with its precious influence on the mind and heart, would dis- 
appear ; probation, that means of spiritual benefit, the divine 
method of educating us for a nobler state of existence, would 
become impossible; for pure justice would dispense her 



208 GOD IS LOVE. 

rewards immediately, -without forbearance towards the wicked, 
or benevolent delay for the sake of strengthening, and so in 
the highest measure rewarding, the good. It is evident, there- 
fore, that justice, on which, nevertheless, the safety of the 
universe depends, could not properly be the governing purpose 
in the divine mind and administration. 

But can the same objections be made to holiness, as the 
predominant manifestation in the divine character ? Yes ; 
even now, while the goodness of God attempers the insuffer- 
able rays of his holiness to the eyes of angels and men, the 
powerful impressions of it are more than they can bear. 
Angels veil their faces while they worship. In the temple, 
the cherubim had more wings with which to cover themselves 
than to fly, while they cried one to another, Holy, holy, holy, 
is the Lord God of Hosts. At which voice, and under a 
sense of the holiness of God, Isaiah cried, " Woe is me. for 
I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I 
dwell in the midst of a people of uncleaft lips, for mine eyes 
have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." If the holiness of 
God should universally make the first predominating impres- 
sion upon the minds of his creatures whenever they approach 
him, or think of him, and this impression should be such that 
no sense of his infinite benevolence mingling with it could 
mitigate or qualify it, the fear which is cast out by love would 
occupy every mind ; the holiness of God would dazzle the 
sight beyond endurance ; worship would consist only in dis- 
tant prostration, nor would any creature, even the archangel, 
venture to say, ' ; Beloved, now are we the sons of God." 
A sense of his excellency would make them always afraid. 
Job said, " Only do not two things unto me ; then will I not 
hide myself from thee ; withdraw thine hand from me, and 
let not thy dread make me afraid. Then call thou, and I will 
answer ; or let me speak, and answer thou me." 



GOD IS LOVE. 209 

But now we see a pleasing contrast to such representations 
of the divine character. The methods by which God manifests 
himself to us so as to produce the greatest and best effect 
upon our moral sense, and thereby to give us the most exalted 
views of his greatness, are illustrated, for example, in the 
causes by which light is ordained to give us comfort and 
pleasure. Power and wisdom are employed in doing it, and 
yet benevolence is more conspicuous in it than they. The 
different colors of things are owing to certain qualities in the 
things themselves, a leaf being constructed so as to reflect 
green rays, the atmosphere a soft blue ; that which we call 
the color of an object being the result of its construction by 
the hand of God, who makes the leaves in the woods such that 
when they decay they gratify us with the variety of their 
colors. Here the power of God puts forth benevolence as its 
illustration. It would not have been as great a proof of 
power so to have made every thing in the air, earth, and sea, 
that it should absorb all the colors ; then nothing would be 
seen but that which was white, and the sun, with his full 
splendors reflected from every point, would, with our present 
eyesight, have been our sore tormentor. Or creation, by some 
similar process, might have been shrouded in black, and 
" Night, from her ebon throne," would have stretched her 
sceptre into the day. While God has chosen to gratify our 
sense by a benevolent arrangement which makes different 
objects, and the same objects at different times, shed different 
rays upon us, his power is more signally illustrated through 
his benevolence than it could have been by overwhelming 
impressions of his omnipotent force. 

If, therefore, it appears probable that the present state of 
things, and the happiness of intelligent beings every where, 
could not exist unless benevolence took the lead in the mani- 
festations of the divine character, we may argue, from the 
18* 



210 GOD IS LOVE. 

necessity of the case, that if there be a God, love must per- 
vade his perfections and rule in his acts. This is true in those 
states of society where the true God has not been and is not 
recognized. " Nevertheless, he left not himself without wit- 
ness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and 
fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness." 
The heathen and pagan world could not exist, except as the 
benevolence of God countervailed its constant tendency to 
self-destruction. " His tender mercies are over all his works." 
" The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." " So is this 
great and wide sea." Intelligent men concur in the acknowl- 
edgment that the attributes of God are guided by benevolence, 
and that there is an evident design in the constitution of things 
to make this conciliating impression upon the minds of men, 
that God is good. 

Now there is one principal objection which is urged against 
this view of the divine character. It is drawn from the moral 
condition of our race. Our fallen nature, our entrance into the 
world with a moral constitution predisposed to evil, is held to 
be a sufficient refutation of all proofs of God's goodness drawn 
from the works of nature. They are inanimate ; they pro- 
mote, it is said, the temporary comfort of man as a necessary 
means of sustaining life ; but here are moral beings in a 
world blas'ted by sin, they themselves possessing a sinful 
nature ; — is not such a nature a reproach to the character of 
the Being who presides over it ? Does it not conflict with the 
doctrine now maintained, that God is love ? 

The answer may, without hesitation, be, No ; and the proof 
is abundant and clear. 

But let it be plainly understood what it is which we now 
attempt to show. Not one word is here to be said on that 
perplexing subject, the existence of sin. But, assuming that 



GOD IS LOVE. 211 

the Creator proposes to make free, accountable creatures to 
inhabit this world, — it will now be attempted to show, that 
we could not have been more favorably placed under any- 
other system which they who impugn the present constitution 
of things have ever proposed. 

May we not all agree upon this question, Whether it is best 
that God shall make a universe of intelligent creatures, who 
shall be entirely free in their choice to love and serve God or 
not ? There shall be no compulsion, no predisposition to sin ; 
on the contrary, rich experience of the character of God, and 
of what it is to love and serve him, shall be afforded ; and 
then his subjects shall decide whether to obey or to sin. Is it 
best that God shall create such a universe ? Considering 
who he is, and taking into view the infinite blessedness of 
those whom he shall love, and on whom he will forever bestow 
all that he can give, as far as they are capable of receiving it, 
we should all, probably, say, It is infinitely desirable that 
creation should be peopled as widely as possible with these 
intelligent, free creatures. The probabilities, we should say, 
are, that such a Being, once known and loved, will secure the 
obedience of his subjects, and, if so, the happiness of which 
they will be capable, no finite mind can conceive. It is worthy 
of a benevolent God, we should say, to bring such an intelli- 
gent universe into being. 

They come into existence. Some of them dwell in the 
immediate presence of God. But there, even there, it appears 
that some of them, in the exercise of their perfectly free 
choice, keep not their first estate, but leave their own habita- 
tion, and,, in so doing, forsake their allegiance to God. They 
must have had, in heaven, every possible inducement to love 
and serve God ; but for some fancied good which they did 
not possess, they renounced their loyalty, they became rebels. 



212 GOD IS LOVE. 

We say nothing about their punishment ; we only ask, Have 
we seen any thing up to this point to impugn the goodness of 
God ? They have become sinners, in the exercise of thai 
freedom with which they were endowed instead of being con 
stituted an intellectual orrery, made to revolve, by force, around 
a central object, whether they would or no. God was good in 
making them, and in making them free ; in all this God is 
love. Has their transgression cast any reflection upon his 
character ? It may be said, He could have prevented them from 
sinning ; why leave them at such peril ? Would a parent 
suffer his child to expose himself thus to ruin, if the parent 
could, by any influence, prevent it ? The reply is, Parents 
govern their children, when they are at years of understand- 
ing, by surrounding them with powerful moral restraints and 
persuasive influences ; but there is a certain province in the 
child's free agency which they do not invade. Even in the 
case of the redeemed, whose perpetual uprightness the Bible 
teaches us to believe will be made sure, we cannot suppose that 
any thing will be done which will in the least intrude upon the 
consciousness of perfect liberty, or suggest the thought or feeling 
of restricted freedom. Whether it be just and wise to allow 
every race of beings to be placed on probation at first, is a ques- 
tion which we have not light enough to discuss at much length ; 
we can only say, that there seems to be no want of benevolence 
in trying their choice, under a full and explicit disclosure of the 
consequences which will ensue upon obedience or disobedience. 
No one can properly say that a fair and full statement of a 
proposal, with all that will follow its acceptance or rejection, 
does not acquit him who makes the proposal from all blame if 
the choice inclines to the wrong side. The bias being as 
strong towards good as towards evil, and not only so, but being 
fortified by experience in the happy consequences of upright- 
ness, benevolence is not impeachable, if, in pursuit of some 



GOD IS LOVE. 213 

imagined advantage, we forsake our first estate, with all its 
obligations, and seek a selfish end. Such, so far as we can 
learn, was the case with angels, and we cannot find just cause 
of exception in it against the benevolence of God, unless we 
take the ground that, rather than expose immortal creatures 
to the liability of losing their happiness forever, even by the 
exercise of their own intelligent and deliberate choice, it 
would be better that God should have no creatures but flying 
fowl, and beasts of the earth, and fishes, who cannot possibly, 
by choosing wrong, involve themselves in such a calamity as 
sin. Let the universe be an infinite firmament for suns and 
planets, and let the only forms of intelligence be mechanical 
revolutions, in sublime cycles, by unnumbered worlds, which 
shall be dumb, except as their spheres make music, or the 
irrational creatures which inhabit them utter their voices ; 
and let their wonderful forms of chemistry and mineralogy illus- 
trate the wisdom of the Creator ; but let there be no intelligent 
creature to behold them, and to love and praise God ; let 
almighty goodness bring every thing else into being except 
an offspring in his own image, lest, perchance, some of them 
should choose to forsake him, in the pursuit of fancied good ! 
We confidently say that this is not benevolence ; and that it 
is far from being any impeachment of benevolence for God to 
make spirits in his own image, and give them liberty to every 
possible extent, with all its liabilities, and with its privileges 
and blessings. 

Next, let us pursue the illustration in the case of our first 
parents, without any reference to their posterity. Adam is 
put on probation as a free, accountable creature. God endows 
him with every form of blessing ; holds converse with him ; 
instructs him fully as to his duty, and the consequences of a 
right or wrong choice. He puts his obedience to the test, by 
prohibiting one tree, which was necessary neither to existence 



214 GOD IS LOVE. 

nor to happiness, provided man would prefer obedience to God 
above every other gratification. In all this, God is love. It 
is not a temptation to sin. On the one hand, there are posi- 
tive experiences of blessing in uprightness, and promises of 
further good ; on the other, a most explicit dissuasion from 
doing wrong, with a disclosure of the consequences. Man, in 
the perfectly free exercise of his own will, eats the forbidden 
fruit. The temptation could not have been reduced to lower 
terms, and yet be a trial of obedience. We cannot discern 
any thing thus far which impeaches the benevolence of God. 

Now we come to consider ourselves. In consequence of 
this apostasy, all the posterity of these first parents are born 
with a sinful nature. To this, objection is made. Let us come 
into existence, it is said, without any bias to sin, and let each 
of us take his chance for himself, to stand or to fall. This 
would be benevolent. Then we should agree that God is 
love. 

Now, without venturing, as was said before, one step into 
the unfathomable abyss of speculation on the subject of moral 
evil, let us simply consider whether, in view of universally 
acknowledged premises, we are warranted in saying, that a 
contrary method with regard to our moral probation would be 
any more benevolent than that which God has adopted with 
regard to man. Let us see, on the contrary, whether the 
present system be not manifestly benevolent, without presum- 
ing to speculate as to its being the only method which could 
possibly have been adopted. It will be enough if we see that 
in the present moral constitution of things with regard to our 
probation, God is love. 

Instead of coming into existence as now, with a fallen nature 
which will inevitably develop sinfulness, and make us liable to 
its tearful consequences, we might each have been born up- 
right, free to choose for himself whether he will stand or fall. 



GOD IS LOVE. 215 

No redemption, however, is to be provided for us in case we 
fall. As angels, and as men, took upon themselves the great 
responsibility of sinning, with all its possible consequences, so 
must we. Which will we do? Assume this responsibility, 
each for himself, with no way of recovery if we fall ? or will 
we consent that a progenitor shall try the experiment for us, 
our nature be determined by the result, and redemption be 
provided and offered to us in case that he involves us with 
himself in disobedience ? Our nature is the same with that of 
Adam ; he sinned ; our will is the same free will ; why should 
we think that we should remain upright, if Adam fell ? The 
least possible provocation to sin existed in his case ; the love 
of God was set against an untasted fruit, his threatenings 
against a tempter's word that it would make him happy. A 
stronger inducement to remain upright, a smaller inducement 
to depart from God, we could not have. Now, will we take 
our chance, and put our condition at stake, knowing what the 
result of the experiment was in the case of our fellow-creature, 
Adam ? It is no want of benevolence in God not to let men 
take that risk ; and this is all which we seek to prove. 

If angels fell, if Adam fell, for all that appears to the con- 
trary, as many of our race would eventually have been lost as 
under any other moral system. It is benevolent to let men 
come into existence with a fallen nature, and to let this be 
their probation — Will you accept free forgiveness and pre- 
serving grace ? You who are born in heathen lands, and have 
the law written in your hearts, your thoughts the meanwhile 
accusing or else excusing one another, your infants and young 
children being saved by the exercise of a compensatory dispen- 
sation toward them, and you who know good and evil, being 
taught by the known consequences of sin in your souls and 
bodies, and by the effects of doing right in an inward self- 
approbation, — will you accept this testimony on either side, 



216 GOD IS LOVE. 

obey, and live ? And you for whom revelation is added to 
the light of nature, you with the gospel of Jesus Christ in your 
hands, will you obey the gospel, and so be saved ? Motives 
of infinite tenderness plead with you to this effect : u for if ye 
do these things ye shall never fall ; " but if in a state of origi- 
nal uprightness you sin. you sin as angels did. with no Re- 
deemer. We may safely assert that our present condition, as 
fallen creatures, with a Eedeemer, is, to say the least, and to 
speak very far within bounds, no less a proof that God is love, 
than angels or Adam had in being made to try the question of 
obedience or disobedience for themselves, with the conse- 
sequences annexed. So far as we are informed, every race of 
creatures is placed on probation. 

If this be so, and if it would have been indispensable that 
every one of us should have had some trial on which his 
chaFacter and standing forever should depend, we cannot fail 
to admit that the question on which we are now tried, viz., 
whether we will repent and accept a free and full redemption, 
is as favorable and as safe for us as the question, whether we 
will remain upright and live, or fall and be irretrievably lost. 
And therefore no injury is done by making our progenitor try 
the question for us, and connect us with himself in his fall, and 
in his recovery by the infinite mercy of God. Had we fallen 
in Adam with no possibility of restoration, the question would 
be totally different from the form in which it now stands. 
Then it would have been, whether it is benevolent to involve 
a race in the doings of their progenitor, and give them no 
opportunity to retrieve their state. ~So such question is raised 
by the conduct of God towards us. Redemption is contem- 
poraneous with our apostasy : they must be contemplated 
together ; it is injustice towards God to separate them. There- 
fore, all the invectives against the present moral constitution of 
things as unjust and cruel, are themselves unfair, because they 



GOD IS LOVE. 217 

leave out of view one half of the truth ; for the provision made 
for man's entire recovery is, to say the least, as great a proof 
of benevolence, as his apostasy, which involved us, could, by 
any misrepresentation or partial statement, be of the opposite. 
Hence, when we hear men say cf our coming into the world 
with a constitutional bias towards evil, that God is a hard 
master, and treats us cruelly, and requires brick without 
straw, and sets us adrift with the chances of shipwreck all 
against us, we feel that extreme injustice is done to the char- 
acter of the ever-blessed God. What would men have had 
their Maker do for them ? Do they insist that he ought to 
have given them each a chance to test the question for him- 
self, whether to remain upright, or to throw away his inher- 
itance, like Satan ? Is this the infinite privilege which they 
covet ? Is God unrighteous in denying them the opportunity 
to draw, in that lottery, the prize of eternal life, or the blank 
alternative, perdition ? Surely, if they reflect on the plan of 
mercy, which, we maintain, God has devised for us, they can- 
not, as men of understanding, impeach the divine benevolence ; 
and as to its wisdom, it may be well for us to postpone our 
conclusions against it till we are better informed upon the 
question whether, in the compass of the divine knowledge, 
there was any other expedient which was at once so honorable 
to God and safe for man. But as to benevolence, there can 
be no reasonable denial, that the connecting of us with Adam, 
with the intentional provision of a Redeemer, is as kind, there 
is as much evidence in it of love, as in allowing angels to stand 
or fall each upon his own responsibility, with no provision for 
their recovery if they apostatized. 

This view of the case is not invalidated by all the misery 

which sin has occasioned in the world. God is not the author 

of it. He makes man free, tells him what consequences will 

ensue upon his obedience o~ disobedience, and then, if bv one 

19 



218 GOD IS LOYE. 

man sin enters into the world, and death by sin, and so death 
passes upon all men, for that all have sinned, the question is, 
whether this is any worse than it would have been had we 
fallen without a Saviour ; and whether we should have fallen 
is a question whose very uncertainty is fitted to appall the 
mind, and to make the absolute certainty of restoration from 
a fallen state by a Redeemer, if we choose to accept it, an 
object of grateful contemplation, and a proof that God is love, 
seeing that he is not willing that men should perish. 

Yet, it will be replied, they do perish, we are told, by mil- 
lions, and they perish in consequence of their strong constitu- 
tional predisposition to sin. Now, before we suffer ourselves 
to impugn the goodness of God on this score, would it not be 
well to know whether or no as many would not have perished 
if each had had a separate probation. Then, if liability to 
fall be inseparable from every state of existence, the question 
must be removed back to the very origin of all things, and we 
must say, Is it right for God to create moral and accountable 
beings, some of whom will voluntarily sin and be lost ? He 
who feels competent to be the judge of the Almighty, or even 
to be his counsellor, needs at least to read once more, or per- 
haps for the first time, the Almighty's words to Job, on the 
expediency of sitting in judgment upon the eternal purposes 
of God. If it be said that such a remark is fitted to silence, 
not to satisfy, it is interesting to know that God did not seek 
to silence Job upon the subject, but he addresses him thus : 
; ' Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, 
and answer thou me." And it is not by metaphysical ques- 
tions that the Most High argues with him ; but he makes use 
of the snow, and hail, and rain, and lightnings, the lion, the 
raven, the wild goat, the wild ass, the unicorn, the ostrich, 
the peacock, the horse, the hawk, the eagle, behemoth, and 
leviathan, to show that he to whom these creatures and things 






GOD IS LOVE. 219 

are mysteries, and more than a match for both his wisdom 
and his strength, while they never cease to fill him with won- 
der and love at the divine benevolence and skill in their 
formation, may safely leave some other questions, relating to 
things higher than eagles, and deeper than the snows and 
floods, to the same wisdom which he does not fail to recognize 
in the works of nature. 

But it is said, The penalty which, it is alleged, God has 
annexed to disobedience, cannot be consistent with love ; for, 
if God knows from the beginning that a great number will sin 
and suffer forever, his love is not a perfect attribute, or love 
surely does not rule in his perfections. Some stern and 
unamiable principle gives its character to the Being who is 
willing to see a portion of his offspring miserable forever, 
when he could have prevented it by forbearing to bestow 
existence upon them. 

The demand here seems to be that God shall make it 
impossible for any of his intelligent creatures to commit sin ; 
and, if he cannot do so, it is claimed that true benevolence 
requires him not to bring them into existence. 

We will forbear to consider the question whether, in the 
nature of things, God could create moral beings, and yet 
prevent them universally from sinning ; or the question why 
he cannot prevent all, as well as some, from apostasy. We 
need not involve ourselves in the perplexities of that long- 
debated point ; for there is an answer to this objection which 
lies outside of metaphysical and theological disputes. 

We have reason to believe that angels who have maintained 
their integrity during their probation, and that the ledeemed 
who have finished their probationary state in this world, will 
be kept by the power of God unto salvation forever, and that 
they will " never fall." We do not know in what respects 



220 GOD IS LOYE. 

the divine influence which will keep them from falling in 
heaven differs from the divine influence which was extended 
to Adam when on probation, or why it could not have kept 
him from falling, (as it will keep the redeemed from apos- 
tasy,) and in perfect consistency with his own liberty. This 
is a region into which the human mind cannot safely enter ; 
for it involves all those questions respecting the origin of evil 
which are still open questions. There is a beautiful simplicity 
in the manner in which the Saviour treats this subject — 
the origin of evil — in his parable of the tares. " So the 
servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, 
didst thou not sow good seed in thy field ? From whence, 
then, hath it tares ? He said unto them, An enemy hath done 
this." This is all the explanation which divine wisdom has 
revealed with regard to this perplexing subject. TTe are left 
to suppose that, in order to make a universe of free minds, it 
is necessary that all, in some period of their existence, should 
be tried as to their allegiance. In saying this, we do not step 
beyond the bounds of revelation ; for we surely know that 
man was thus tried, and we also know that of the angels some 
have fallen. Then the question would be this : Is it, after all, 
injustice or unkindness to wake up an immortal spirit from non- 
existence, endue it with godlike powers and faculties, place it 
under the most favorable circumstances in the immediate pres- 
ence of God, and give it permission to choose life or death ? 

Let us apply the question to the following case, and see 
how we decide such questions in human affairs : A man at 
the head of the engraving department in the Bank of Eng- 
land is intrusted with great responsibilities. If faithful, he is 
of immense service to the community in the prevention of 
counterfeiting. His salary is in proportion to his great re- 
sponsibilities. In his silent, quiet way, he is the means of 
unmeasured benefit to the commercial world ; and all these 



GOD IS LOVE. 221 

considerations unite to keep him upright, while, at the same 
time, great watchfulnesss is exercised over him, and he feels 
that unsleeping vigilance marks every one of his official acts. 
But notwithstanding all these guards, and his powerful induce- 
ments to be honest, we will suppose that he perverts his trust, 
commits large forgeries, and is transported for life, to be a con- 
vict in a penal colony, making his wife a widow, his children 
fatherless, and covering his family and friends with a cloud of 
sorrow which is worse than death. Now, who will undertake 
to say, It is wrong to place a human being in circumstances 
where defalcation is possible ? Who will venture the judg- 
ment that the inducements to uprightness and its great re- 
wards are not consistent with benevolence, because, if disre- 
garded, the consequences will be so fearful ? Surely, if men 
should act on this principle, which they require at the hand 
of God, they could not even employ a clerk. There must be 
no responsibility, because it is capable of being perverted. 

But some who will assent to this reasoning, and own that 
probation is reasonable and just, demur to the alleged eternal 
consequences of transgression under the government of God, 
and say, that it is not consistent with the benevolence of God 
that any of his subjects should be punished forever, let theii 
transgressions be whatever they may. They adopt this prin- 
ciple as the foundation of every thing, even of the being and 
attributes of God. The ultimate, eternal happiness of every 
intelligent being, they say, is absolutely required by the great 
law of I enevolence, and God can neither be nor do any thing 
inconsist jnt with this. 

Let us take Satan for an illustration. Let us assert, for the 
sake of the argument, that Satan is to be punished without 
end. Now it is said, It cannot be true that " God is love,'* 
while that great spirit is suffering the vengeance of eternal 
fire. 

To this it may be replied, Good parents punish a child so 
19* 



222 GOD IS LOVE. 

long as he sins, let the period of transgression be as long as it 
may. 

To flinch in the chastisement, saying, After all, it is too 
much to punish you io long, and to keep you from my love, 
while the child is as rebellious as ever, would subject the 
parent to contempt. So long as Satan chooses to sin, we 
must admit that God does right in continuing the punishment. 

If Satan, during the last five or six thousand years, had 
chosen to repent, there has been nothing to hinder him ; and 
no one can believe that, had he repented, God would have 
continued to punish him, whatever the natural consequences 
of his transgression might have been ; for we, when forgiven, 
may still suffer from the natural effects, in body and mind, 
of our evil ways. Yet if Satan were penitent, hell would be 
a changed place to him ; loving and fearing God, he would 
have verified those words which Milton puts into his mouth : — 

" The mind is its own place, and in itself 
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven." 

Has not Satan had opportunity to repent ? There is one part of 
his experience recorded in the Bible, which, we shall all agree, 
should have made him a good angel ; and that is, his intercourse 
with Job. He is suffered to strip Job of every thing, and to 
afflict him with the severest bodily anguish which infernal inge- 
nuity could select. Job comes forth from those trials a better 
man. Satan sees that there is that in God which is worthy to 
be loved even under chastisement, and to be preferred above 
possessions and children, and life itself; for, " though he slay 
me, yet will I trust in him." " Till I die, I will not remove 
mine integrity from me." But what does Satan after this? 
He afflicts Israel in Egypt four hundred years. He insti- 
gates Pharaoh to fighi afainst God, and so on to King Saul, 
Jeroboam, AJiab, and Jezebel, "the man of sin," the slave 



GOD IS LOVE. 223 

trade, and all the barbarities of war. Thus, instead of ceasing 
to sin against God, he has been helping to fill the world with 
sin and misery. He has seen the most touching forms of 
goodness, vieing with the angelic beauty of his own original 
abode. He has seen Ignatius bare his breast to the lions in 
the Roman amphitheatre, Polycarp, John Huss, Lambert, 
Ridley, and Latimer embrace the stake ; the Huguenots per- 
ishing for their religion " upon the Alpine Mountains cold ; " 
he has seen John Bunyan bid adieu to his poor little blind 
child, and go into Bedford jail for twelve years for Christ's 
sake and the gospel's, — he has seen all this, and has not re- 
lented in his opposition to Christ. Were there any thing in 
love and pity to redeem the soul, he could not have lived 
through such scenes, and have also witnessed the times of 
Christ, the transactions in Gethsemane, the judgment hall, 
Calvary, and at the Resurrection, and the day of Pentecost, 
and not have been reclaimed. We should have to draw to 
a greater degree on fancy to invent a more favorable proba- 
tion for him, than human fancy has ever yet shown itself able 
to depict. In addition to all this, the loss of heaven, and what- 
ever there must have been of rigor in the sufferings of such 
a being as he under the mighty hand of God, must have sup- 
plied him with sufficient demonstration how fruitless it is to 
fight against God his Maker. Sympathy for such a being is 
misplaced, even though he shall forever eat the fruit of his 
doings. 

But here is poor, frail, sinful man; — he sins away his 
day of grace. Shall a God of love deal thus with him ? 

We must all believe that in no instance will endless retri- 
butions be inflicted, if at all, on a human being, in which the 
justice of the infliction will not commend itself to the judg- 
ment of every benevolent mind as fully as in the case of 
Sata .* himself. But in arguing upon this subject, men love 



224 GOD IS LOYE. 

to invent cases of extreme hardship, and then they appeal 
to our sensibilities against the justice and benevolence of 
God. For example : Here, they say. is a youth about fifteen 
years of age, subject to the infirmities and temptations of im- 
mature life ; he is not interested in religious things, yet by 
no means openly vicious ; he passes along heedless of the 
future. He is drowned. There is no evidence that he feared 
God, or that he had complied with the terms of salvation. 
He had a very short probation. Subtract the years of mere 
childhood from the term of his life, and it seems appalling to 
think of eternity deriving its hopeless character from the in- 
discretions and follies of seven or eight years, and those the 
most thoughtless years of life, the most unfavorable to pru- 
dent consideration. It is demanded whether we believe that 
God will shut the door of mercy upon that youth forever, and 
whether we deem it just to cut him off, and consign him to 
hopeless woe, while a companion, who escapes death at the 
same time, lives to the age of sixty, and enjoys tenfold oppor- 
tunities to be saved, and thereby obtains salvation. 

The answer to this is twofold. In the first place, TYe 
greatly err in shutting the door of hope, ourselves, against 
any sinner as a subject of repentance and faith. Little do we 
know what has taken place between the soul and God in the 
apparently most hardened cases of sin, or in the most thought- 
less and trifling young person, where sudden death has cut 
short the day of grace. Should all that may have transpired 
in such cases be disclosed, perhaps it would have the effect to 
harden others in their sin, and would lead to great presump- 
tion. A wise silence is preserved, and thus our wholesome 
fears are permitted to act in deterring us from trespassing on 
divine forbearance. At the same time, no one can say what 
intercourse the Spirit of God may have had with the soul in 
the near approach of death, and even in cases where the 



CtOd is l o y e . 225 

senses cannot report to the bystanders the operations of the 
mind. Perhaps it will not be deemed unsuitable here to 
say, It was not without warrant in the possibilities of divine 
mercy that a friend, on a certain occasion, presumingly sought 
to impart consolation to mourning parents, whose son, a grace- 
less youth, was killed by being thrown from a horse. This 
friend succeeded in writing certain words on a plantain leaf 
which had grown up from the youth's grave ; and the pious 
mother, as she was one day kneeling there, descried these 
words upon the leaf : — 

" Betwixt the saddle and the ground 
Was mercy asked, and pardon found." 

This was easily interpreted by many as a preternatural 
revelation to the mother, that her child repented and found 
pardon through Christ in the last moments of a wicked life. 
No one will say that the assertion in this fraud had no warrant 
in the nature of things. 

"We charge God foolishly if we impute to him vindictive 
acts before we know that they have occurred. 

We have another answer to the inquiry now under con- 
sideration. A young person may as intelligently and deliber- 
ately refuse the offers of eternal life, and choose to risk the 
consequences of eternal death, as a person of the maturest 
age. This is subject to the judgment of Him who " will 
not lay on man more than right, that he should enter into 
judgment with God. For the work of a man will he render 
unto him, and cause every man to find his own way." God 
can place the subject of religion before the mind of a youth 
with such clearness, and vividness, and persuasion ; cause him 
to be approached and followed with such heavenly influences 
from every source which divine and human love can employ, 
and set before him the endless consequences of his conduct, 



226 GOD IS LOVE. 

■ 1 

and the youth may deliberately reject his God and Saviour, 
and make answer that he would prefer banishment from God 
rather than love such a being as he clearly perceives him to 
be, or to be saved in such a way as the gospel makes plain 
to his understanding, — so that God will remove him from this 
world, where his example and influence would corrupt many 
others, and suffer him to indulge his opinions and feelings 
among those of his own tastes and preferences. How long 
this sinner shall remain in this world of probation before he 
is removed to a state of penal infliction, God, the Judge, will 
decide. " Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? " 

This illustration, in some of its particulars, has been drawn 
from a recent statement to the writer by a very intelligent 
lady now deceased, with regard to her feelings and words 
during the period of youth, when convinced of her sins and 
of the way of salvation by Christ. She told her Christian 
friends that she fully understood the idea of justification by 
faith, without works, through the sufferings and death of 
Christ, but that she hated it with a cordial hatred ; that she 
never would submit to be saved in that way ; and that if 
heaven was to be obtained only in that way, she would say 
to God that she did not wish to have any part in his heaven, 
and that he might dispose of her as he pleased. These were 
precisely her words. It could truly be said to her, " Ye have 
both seen and hated both me and my Father." There are feel- 
ings in many an unrenewed heart which do not make such 
explicit and bold expression of themselves ; but many will 
recognize in these words their own fearful similitude. This 
deliberate and almost impious rejection of divine wisdom and 
love in Christ Jesus, did not meet with what might be deemed 
its just recompense of reward ; for, by methods of gentle and 
winning grace, that heart was prevailed upon to accept the 
way of salvation by a Redeemer, and the penitent lived to a 



GOD IS LOVE. 227 

good age, eminently useful in bringing souls to Christ, and in 
leading some to be preachers of that faith which once she 
destroyed. But if God had taken her at her word, and had 
removed her from time into eternity, leaving her to her own 
choice, one thing is certain, that she could never have im- 
peached his goodness in suffering her to choose for herself, 
and for being willing to lie down in endless sorrow rather than 
to sing "forced hallelujahs" in heaven. 

But now it will be said, Inasmuch as 'God was love' in 
thus turning her from her sin and folly, we believe that in the 
next world he will be the same ; he will perform similar acts of 
grace in eternity, or we cannot believe that his character as a 
God of love is perfect. 

The answer to this may be as follows : Whatever God 
might do for the recovery of the soul in the world to come, he 
cannot surpass that which, if we believe the gospel, he has 
already done to save us. This remark, it will be borne in 
mind, does not touch the question whether God will do any 
thing more hereafter to save the soul ; but we may say without 
fear of contradiction, that nothing can exceed the incarnation 
of the Word, and the sufferings and death of Christ, as an 
expression and proof of love to sinners. If this be granted, 
it cannot be said that, after having bestowed the utmost proof 
of love on men, if God should, at a given time, cease in his 
efforts to reclaim them, this is a just allegation against him as 
wanting in perfect love. " What more could I do in my vine- 
yard that I have not done in it ? " Shall I, by omnipotent 
force, create grapes on vines which my sun and rain, my til- 
lage and dressing, have failed to make fruitful ? 

But it may be said, God has not, in this world, tried the 
effect of severity to its full extent. If God is perfect in his 
love, he will not give over till he has used extreme measures 
of chastisement to save an immortal soul. 



228 GOD IS LOVE. 

This implies that chastisement can succeed to accomplish 
that which infinite loving kindness has failed to do. 

We ha\e had one great experiment tried before our eyes, 
as to* chastisement being the ultimate means of reformation, 
in the history of the Jews. More of them, by a hundred fold, 
were converted under the preaching of the gospel, apart from 
their chastisements, than have been converted during their 
centuries of punishment. The experiment is sufficient to 
show that chastisement, of itself, is not " the power of God 
and the wisdom of God unto salvation." Christ is that 
" power," that " wisdom." Ages of woe, mingled with prom- 
ises of restoration, have not succeeded in making the Jews 
submit to the Messiah. But affliction, of itself, even while 
holding in its hand exceeding great and precious promises, 
cannot reclaim the Jewish people, in a world of mercy, from 
their infidelity. He who believes that any process of recovery 
is to succeed the atonement by Christ, we will not say, gets no 
encouragement to his belief from the Bible, but, does infinite 
discredit to the atonement, as the grand and ultimate method 
of influencing man as a moral agent ; and, if the Bible does 
not represent Christ and his sacrifice to be the last effort of 
mercy, and the rejection of him to be followed by " everlast- 
ing destruction from the presence of the Lord," and with being 
" unjust still," language can make no certain impressions upon 
the mind. Surely we may expect that the brightness of the 
Father's glory, and the express image of his person, would be 
employed hereafter to conduct whatever remedial measures 
might be used to recover the soul from sin ; and yet it does 
not look like a continuation of his merciful presence and 
influence to say to the hopeful subjects of his continued grace, 
" Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared 
for the devil and his angels ! " 

Yes, " God is love," now and forever ; and the darkest 



GOD IS LOVE. 229 

parts of his system are far from countervailing the proofs of 
it afforded by all that we know of his ways. They who take 
mournful views of the present world, and of their afflicted 
and sinful state, should remember that, in coming into this 
world, we strike upon a road which proceeds from a region 
of blessedness, and leads to a condition of surpassing glory ; 
but the section over which we are passing is, for wise rea- 
sons, one of trial and sorrow. We must take into view the 
past and the future of the great career ; and, if we obey, we 
shall at last have infinite reasons for gratitude that we have 
been brought into being. For, if God is love, he is this to 
every one who is willing to love him ; and if any refuse, they 
have but their choice. Let the heavens, earth, and seas bring 
their testimonies that God is love ; let sight, and taste, and 
smell, and touch, all the melodies and harmonies of the world, 
and all the sensibilities of the soul, declare that God is love : 
we have in the incarnation and sacrifice of Christ a proof 
which exceeds them all. One of the persons in the Godhead 
takes the form of man, lies in the manger of Bethlehem, 
passes through the conditions of youth and manhood, and at 
last is made a sacrifice for our sins. This is, as literally as it 
could be, our Creator suffering in our stead. He was " made 
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin," and " bare our sins 
in his own body on the tree." If we esteem it a calamity 
that we come into the world with a bias towards evil, he has 
set over against it this manifestation of infinite love towards 
us, so that no one need perish ; no one will perish who would 
not, probably, have lost his birthright had he stood for himself 
in some Eden, or in heaven ; for he who will not believe in 
and accept Jesus Christ, has no reason to think that, if made 
upright and placed on probation, he could have preferred the 
favor of God to every possible solicitation to sin, or could 
have resisted his desires for untasted good, more easily than 
20 



230 GOD IS LOYE. 

he can now resist the present poor and unsatisfying pleasures 
of sin, in preference to the love and service of his Redeemer. 
And now, while love will lead and guide all the acts of 
God, we have assurance that it will not be a weak love ; it 
can never excite the suspicion of imbecility : on the contrary, 
all the attributes of God are filled with love, and love is filled 
with all the attributes of God. If we decline the proposals 
which this love and wisdom make to us as intelligent and free 
subjects of the divine government ; if we refuse to believe the 
simple, plain story of sin and redemption, and prefer our false 
philosophy ; if it must be said of us, " He feedeth on ashes ; 
a deceived heart hath turned him aside, so that he cannot 
deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand ? " 
and so we take the risk of going into the next world without a 
Saviour, one thing is sure — we shall, nevertheless, be eter- 
nally the monuments of the truth that God is love. Our 
consciences will bear witness to it ; for we shall remember how, 
in our lifetime, we received our good things, and we shall per- 
ceive what good things they were, to have been created under 
such a dispensation as that of the gospel, with its astonishing 
provisions and appliances to effect our salvation and happi- 
ness ; and in our separation from those who, unlike us, chose to 
love and worship at a throne which is called " the throne of 
God and of the Lamb," we shall ourselves illustrate the love 
of God in not suffering the universe to present such a mingled 
conflict of good and evil as the world presents. " As there- 
fore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it 
be in the end of the world. The Son of man shall send forth 
his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
that offend, and them that do iniquity, and shall cast them into a 
furnace of fire ; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 
When a man suffers capital punishment, it is discretionary, in 
certain cases, for the government to give up his body to the 



GOD IS LOVE. 231 

surgeons, and so the felon subserves the purposes of science 
and humanity, and involuntarily helps to heal and save men. 
" The Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the 
wicked for the day of evil." To every soul he will say, 
" Friend, I do thee no wrong." He " will have all men to 
be s?.ved and come to the knowledge of the truth." " As I 
live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of him 
that dieth, but that the wicked turn and live. Turn ye, turn 
ye, for why will ye die, house of Israel ? " But God will 
eventually use all, and every thing, to glorify him. The com- 
monwealth does not desire convicts for the sake of their man- 
ual labor, but if they make themselves felons, the state will 
avail itself of their handicraft. 

As there is nothing which grows that affords us more pleas- 
ure than a noble vine, God selects it as an illustration of men, 
when they fulfil the purpose of their creation ; and if they do not, 
he represents them to be as useless and worthless as the wood 
of the vine. " Son of man, what is the vine more than any 
tree ? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work ? Or will 
men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon ? Behold, 
it is cast into the fire for fuel ; the fire devoureth both the 
ends of it, and the midst of it is burned. Is it meet for any 
work ? " x Thus the soul of man is capable of perpetual 
advancement towards God ; but if it persists in sin, it is no 
more " meet for any work." As no good use can be made of 
a bad book, an obscene picture, or garments infected with con- 
tagious disease, but they must be buried or burned, so the 
sinner, if he cannot be reclaimed, must be disposed of in such 
a way as wisdom and justice shall determine. But some be- 
stow all their sympathy on the incorrigible sinner, and forget 
that there are rights and privileges belonging to others — 
rights of protection, rights of self-defence — which, to say the 
bast, are of equal importance with his. Others seem to make 
1 Ezek. xv. 



232 GOD IS LOVE. 

small account of sin ; they see no reason for future, endlesg 
punishment, because they perceive nothing to punish. Others 
seem to think of God only as of a fond parent, who has no 
object but to see his children enjoy themselves, and with whom 
the shutting up of one of his offspring in close confinement for 
life would be impossible ; and is he, they say, more humane 
than God ? But so long as there are such subjects as Satan 
and his angels, and wicked men, to be governed, there is, of 
course, a God with a character appropriate to his office as gov- 
ernor of these his subjects. A man with such softness of char- 
acter as many impute to the Most High, would not have the 
qualifications necessary in the humblest magistrate ; he could 
not be trusted to try a question which involved the personal 
liberty of an offender. It is enough to make one sick and 
faint at heart to think of such a being as at the head of affairs. 
Far different is the God whom we have, for example, in the 
vision of Nahum, the Elkoshite, — in which terror and beauty 
vie with each other : " God is jealous, and the Lord re- 
vengeth ; the Lord revengeth, and is furious ; the Lord taketh 
vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his 
enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and 
will not at all acquit the wicked ; the Lord hath his way in 
the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of 
his feet. Who can stand before his indignation ? and who can 
abide in the fierceness of his anger ? His fury is poured out 
like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord 
is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knoweth 
them that trust in him ; but with an overrunning flood he will 
make an utter end thereof, and darkness shall pursue his 
enemies." 

If there be such a God, and our aversion to him be owing 
to any moral perversity on our part, there will be no need of 
outward inflictions to make us completely wretched, so long as 
we remain alienated from him. Our condition for eternity 



GOD IS LOVE. 233 

would, therefore, be hopeless, unless in this world we sLould 
become reconciled to God ; for, if this aversion is based upon 
any correct perception of his character, the more we know of 
him the more shall we desire to flee from him. 

This brings us to one more proof that God is love, which 
must by no means be omitted. All men are by nature averse 
to the character and government of God, by reason of sin. 
This is true not only of those who by the force of education 
are prejudiced against what are called the evangelical doc- 
trines, but of those also who have been taught to believe them. 
Every man by nature has " the carnal mind " which " is en- 
mity against God ; for it is not subject to the law of God, 
neither indeed can be." This aversion is criminal ; yet it is 
such that, if left to themselves, all will, freely and wickedly, 
refuse to love and obey God. The fall has not impaired 
man's natural ability to love goodness ; of course, man is capa- 
ble of loving infinite goodness ; but that exists in one whose will 
is contrary to that of the sinner, and to whose moral character 
the sinner, while he loves sin, has an utter distaste ; so that 
no one can even come to Christ except the Father, which hath 
sent him, draw him. In this direful predicament, God inter- 
poses, and overcomes the sinful reluctance of some ; and still 
the invitation is, " Whosoever will, let him take the water of 
life freely;" but while many refuse, others are persuaded 
and enabled to embrace Jesus Christ as he is freely offered in 
the gospel. They then experience that new birth which is 
the special work of the Holy Spirit. It will seem superflu- 
ous to some that it should be said, that whoever, for ex- 
ample, is reading these lines is as welcome to all the blessings 
of the gospel as any other. No secret decree prevents him 
from obtaining the full benefits of salvation by Christ. No 
abuse of privileges, no rejection of offered mercy, no hard 
thoughts, nor unjust accusations, of his Maker, nor even 
blasphemous words against him, have shut the door of mercy 
20* 



234 GOD IS LOYE. 

upon his soul. He who, for his sake, lay in the manger at 
Bethlehem, and expired on the cross, is now his advocate on 
high, and as a fruit of his merits, the Holy Spirit strives to 
bring the soul to God. Let him reflect how marked the deal- 
ings of God have been with him, in his preservations, bless- 
ings, and trials, and in the means employed to keep him back 
from presumptuous faults, and to bring his attention again and 
again to the subject of religion; let him consider, if, in all 
this, there be not some appearance of a desire to effect his 
salvation, and that, too, notwithstanding great provocations to 
give him up forever. Is there any love like this ? Not only 
in the ransom paid for us, but in the persevering efforts of 
injured mercy, in behalf of every one of us, there are proofs 
that God is love which will furnish us with our principal testi- 
mony to that truth. 

It may, therefore, be said to every one, let his character be 
as it may, God loves you. Complacency in us while we are 
wicked, of course, he cannot feel ; but there are feelings of 
love on the part of God towards every one, such as are not 
equalled by any human interest in the object of its good will. 
While the displeasure of God against sin, and the necessity 
of its endless punishment, are fundamental truths, God is 
love ; hell is not the exponent of his character ; it is a sub- 
sidiary in his administration ; but as Gehenna did not lie 
where the Temple, " beautiful for situation, the joy of the 
whole earth, on the sides of the north," was built, so the fore- 
most object in the Deity is not wrath, nor punishment. But 
when Moses prayed, " I beseech thee show me thy glory," the 
Lord said, " I will make all my goodness pass before thee ; " 
yet it is to be noticed that he immediately adds, And I " will 
be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy 
on whom I will show mercy ;" — in which expressions we see 
that while grace and mercy are set forth to make the chief 
impressions of the divine character, they are enunciated in a 



GOD IS LOVE. 235 

way to suggest the idea of discrimination in the manner in 
which they are exercised. And so when, on Sinai, God pro- 
claimed his name at the renewal of the tables of stone, it was 
" the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and 
abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, 
forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin, visiting the 
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the chil- 
dren's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." 
Here the predominant impression is that of goodness ; yet 
the very term " long-suffering " suggests that there are bounds 
to mercy, while the avowed principle of connecting parent 1 ) 
and children, as here described, makes one feel that the char- 
acter of God has depths in it which are not all explored, nor 
sounded, by the analogy of earthly parentage. If we leave 
out any essential attribute from the character of God, we do 
not worship the true God. At the same time, there is an 
order and a proportion, in those attributes, to disregard which 
is like applying the wrong end of a magnet for a given pur- 
pose. As we are sinners, all the attributes of God have 
relation to us ; and hence it is that redemption, unfolding 
all those attributes in their various exercise, and in disclosing 
to us, as it were by necessity, the mystery in the divine nature 
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, is represented as the chief 
work of Jehovah. 

Each of us is urged to be a subject of that redemption, and 
to afford an illustration of the attributes of God in our sal- 
vation, and not in our future, endless punishment. " For God 
so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ever- 
lasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world 

TO CONDEMN THE WORLD, BUT THAT THE WORLD THROUGH 
HIM MIGHT BE SAVED." 



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tant work, it is a masterly production. (1 5) 



VALUABLE NEW WOEKS. 

aOD REVEALED IN NATURE AND IN CHRIST ; including a 
Refutation of the Development Theory contained iu the " Vestiges of the Natural History 
of Creation." By Rev. James B. Walker, author of "Tub Philosophy of the Plas 
of Salvation." 12mo, cloth, $1.00. 

PHILOSOPHY OP THE PLAN OP SALVATION; a Book for the 
Times. By an American Citizen. With an Introductory Essay by Calvin E. Stowe, 
D. 1). 0=Ne\v improved and enlarged edition. 12rao, cloth, 75 cts. 

YAIIVEH CHRIST; or, The Memorial Name. By Alexander MacWhorteb. 
With an Introductory Letter by Nathaniel W. Taylor, D. D., Dwight Professor iu Yale 
Theol. Sem. 16mo, cloth, 60 cts. 

SALVATION BY CHRIST. A Series of Discourses on some of the most Im- 
portant Doctrines of the Gospel. By Prancis Wayland, D. D. 12mo, cloth, $1.00 ; 
cloth, gilt, $1.50. 

Co n'tents. — Theoretical Atheism. — Practical Atheism. — The Moral Character of Man. — 
The Fall of Man. — Justification by Works Impossible. — Preparation for the Advent. — Work of 
the Messiah. —Justification by Faith. — Conversion.— Imitators of God.— Grieving the Spirit. — 
A Day in the Life of Jesus. — The Benevolence ot the Gospel. — The Fall of Peter. — Character 
of Balaam. — Veracity. — The Church of Christ. — The Unity of the Church. — Duty of Obedi- 
ence to the Civil Magistrate (three Sermons). 

THE GREAT DAY OP ATONEMENT ; or, Meditations and Prayers on 

the Last Twenty-four Hours of the Sufferings and Death of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. Translated from the German of Charlotte Elizabeth Nebeun. Edited by 
Mrs. Colin Mackenzie. Elegantly printed and bound. 16mo, cloth, 75 cts. 

THE EXTENT OP THE ATONEMENT IN ITS RELATION 
TO GOD AND THE UNIVERSE. By Rev. Thomas W. Jenkyn, D. D., 
late President of Coward College, London. 12mo, cloth, $1.00. 

This work was thoroughly revised by the author not long before his death, exclusively for the 
present publishers. It has long been a standard work, and without doubt presents the most com- 
plete discussion of the subject in the language. 

" Wc consider this volume as setting the long and fiercely agitated question as to the extent of 
the Atonement completely at rest. Posterity will thank the author till the latest ages for his illus- 
trious argument." — New York Evangelist. 

THE SUPPERING SAVIOUR ; or, Meditations on the Last Days of Christ. 
By Fred. W. Krummacher, D. D., author of "Elijah the Tishbite." 12mo, cloth, $1.25. 

" The narrative is given with thrilling vividness, and pathos, and beauty. Marking, as we pro% 
seeded, several passages for quotation, we found them in the end so numerous, that we must refer 
the reader to the work itself." — News of the Churches (Scottish). 

THE IMITATION OP CHRIST. By Thomas a Kempis. With an Intro* 
ductory Essay, by Thomas Chalmers, D. D. Edited by Howard Malcom, D. D. A 
new edition, with a Life of Thomas a Kempis, by Dr. C. Ullmann, author of "Re- 
formers before the Reformation." 12mo, cloth, 85 cts. 

This may safely be pronounced the best Protestant edition extant of this ancient and celebrated 
Work. It is reprinted from Payne's edition, collated with an ancient Latin copy. The peculiar 
feature of this new edition is the improved page, the elegant, large, clear type, and the New Lifk 
of a Kempis, by Dr. Ullmann. (1 3) 



GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON, 

YTould call particular attention to the following valuable works described 
in their Catalogue of Publications, viz. : 

Hugh. Miller's Works. 

Bayae's Works. Walker's Works. Miall's Works. Bungener's Work. 

Annual of Scientific Discovery. Knight's Knowledge is Power. 

Krummaeher's Suffering Saviour, 

Banvard's American Histories. The Aimwell Stories. 

ITewcomb's Works. Tweedie's Works. Chambers's Works. Harris' Works'. 

Kitto's Cyclopaedia, of Biblical Literature. 

Mrs. Knight's Life of Montgomery. Kitto's History of Palestine. 

Whewell's Work. W^yland's Works. Agassiz's Works. 




^.K-s/if/r/zsi. 



Williams* Works. Guyot's Works. 

Thompson's Better Land. Kimball's Heaven. Valuable Works on Missione. 

Haven's Mental Philosophy. Buchanan's Modern Atheism. 

Cruden's Condensed Concordance. Eadie's Analytical Concordance. 

The Psalmist : a Collection of Hymns. 

Valuable School Books. Works for Sabbath Schools. 

Memoir of Amos Lawrence. 

Poetical Works of Milton, Cowper, Scott. Elegant Miniature Volumes. 

Arvine'3 Cyclopaedia of Anecdotes. 

Ripley's Notes on Gospels, Acts, and Romans. 

Sprague's European Celebrities. Marsh's Camel and the Hallig. 

Koget's Thesaurus of English Words. 

Hacketfs Notes on Acts. M'Whorter's Yahveh Christ. 

E^ieDold and Stannius's Comparative Anatomy. Marcou's Geological Map, U. S. 

Religious and Miscellaneous Works. 

Works in the various Departments of Literature, Science and Art. 



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